The Fight for Missouri 



/ 



FROM THE ELECTION OF LINCOLN 
TO THE DEATH OF LYON 



/ 



>^ 



THOMAS L. SNEAD 



A. D. C. OF THE GOVERNOR : ACTING ADJUTANT-GENERAL OF THE MISSOURI 

STATE GUARD ; CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE ARMY OF THE WEST 

MEMBER -OF THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS 




CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
1888 






Copyright, iSS6 
Bv CHARLES SCRIBNER-s SONS. 






Press of J. J. Li^^,^ 
Astor Place, New York 



PREFACE. 



I HAVE written this book because it was my duty 
to write it ; because, too, I fancy that I know more 
about the events that are narrated in it, than does 
any one who will ever take the trouble to write 
about them ; and because I am the only living 
witness to many facts the remembrance of which 
ought to be preserved. 

That the reader may know whereon I ground 
these assertions, and that he may, before reading 
my testimony, be aM^'-td^- decide whether it be 
worth his attention, I will tell him frankly how I 
happen to know about these things. 

In the elections of i860 — for Governor of Missouri, 
and for President of the United States — I took 
an active, though inconspicuous part, chiefly in the 
political management of the St. Louis Bulletin, 
which was owned and edited by one of my friends, 
Mr. Longuemare. In its columns and elsewhere I 
advocated earnestly the election of Breckinridge to 
the Presidency, and of Claiborne F. Jackson to the 
Governorship. But when the latter, in obedience to 
the manifest will of a majority of the Democratic 



iv Preface. 

Party of Missouri whose candidate he was, an- 
nounced his determination to support Mr. Douglas 
for the Presidency, we Breckinridge Democrats re- 
fused to support him any longer, and nominated a 
candidate of our own, Hancock Jackson, We did 
this because we believed that the slave-holding 
States could not remain in the Union, with either 
safety or honor unless the North should consent to 
give them Constitutional guarantees that their 
rights as coequal States of the Union should be 
both respected and protected by the Federal Gov- 
ernment, and because we thought that this ques- 
tion should be plainly submitted to the North in 
the then pending Presidential election, and a posi- 
tive answer demanded. As Mr. Douglas' candi- 
dacy, with his policy of equivocation, prevented this 
question from being put fairly to the North, we op- 
posed him and every body who supported him. 
Claiborne F. Jackson was, nevertheless, elected 
Governor, in August, and Missouri, alone of all the 
States, cast her electoral vote in November for 
Douglas. 

On assuming the of^ce of Governor just after the 
formal secession of South Carolina, Governor Jackson 
declared in his Inaugural Address that, in his opinion, 
it was both the interest and the duty of Missouri 
to make common cause with the other slave-holding 
States in the impending conflict. This declara- 



Preface. v 

tion brought the Bulletin, which had meanwhile 
fallen under my absolute control, to his zealous sup- 
port. The great interest which I felt in the matter 
caused me to spend most of the time at Jefferson 
City, where measures looking to the secession of 
Missouri, and to arming her militia, and getting the 
State ready otherwise for the emergency, were 
pending before the General Assembly ; and finally, 
toward the middle of February, I disposed of the 
Bulletin, and took up my abode at Jefferson City, 
and remained there as the guest of the Governor 
till we were all driven thence by Blair and Lyon, in 
June. During this time I assisted Governor Jack- 
son in conducting his correspondence and in other 
confidential matters, and upon the enactment of the 
military law in May was commissioned as one of his 
aides-de-camp. General Price had asked me to ac- 
cept the position of adjutant-general of the State 
forces, to the command of which he had just been 
appointed, but I introduced to him, and got him to 
appoint instead, Captain Henry Little who had just 
resigned his commission in the United States Army 
and was a thousand times better fitted than myself 
to discharge the duties of the place. 

I therefore remained with the Governor ; followed 
him when he left Jefferson City ; was with him at 
Booneville, and Carthage ; and went with him to 
Cowskin Prairie, in the south-western corner of the 



"X. 



vl Preface. 

State. When, however, on arriving there, he relin- 
quished the command of all the State forces to 
General Price, and was about to go East, I got his 
permission to remain with the army, and was the 
next day assigned to duty by General Price as his 
chief of ordnance. A few days later Colonel Little 
left for Richmond in order to secure his commission 
in the regular army of the Confederate States, and 
I was then assigned to duty as Acting Adjutant- 
General of the State Guard. This position I held 
during all of the eventful campaign, in which were 
won the Battles of Wilson's Creek, Fort Scott, and 
Lexington. 

During this time — from the election of Lincoln in 
November i860, to the death of Lyon at Wilson's 
Creek on the loth of August 1861 — occurred all the 
events that I have narrated in this volume ; but I 
remained with General Price till the last year of the 
war, as adjutant-general and sometimes as chief of 
staff, of the commands that he held, except that for 
brief periods I was entrusted with special duties. I 
left him in the summer of 1864, in order to attend a 
meeting of the Confederate Congress, of which I 
was a member, and did not return to the army. 

When the war ended General Price took to 
Mexico the records of the several commands which 
he had held, and also other important papers relat- 
ing to the war. On returning to this country he 



Preface. vii 

brought these records and papers with him and 
gave them to me, with the understanding that I 
would one day write the story of his campaigns. I 
turned over most of them to the War Department 
several years ago, and many of them have been, 
and the rest will be, published in the Official Records 
of the War of the Rebellion. 

In preparing the political part of this volume, I 
have relied chiefly upon the Journals of the General 
Assembly of Missouri, and of the State Convention, 
and on the ofBcial reports of their debates, and 
upon contemporaneous publications, particularly 
the Missouri Republican ; and upon the original 
documents published in Peckham's Life of Lyon — a 
book whose glaring faults are more than compen- 
sated by the important facts the remembrance 
whereof it has preserved. 

For military details I am indebted above all to 
the Official Records, which the Government is pub- 
lishing. The zeal, the fairness, the intelligence, the 
care, and the ability with which they have been col- 
lected, compiled, arranged, and edited by Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Robert N. Scott, U. S. A., entitle that 
gentleman to the gratitude of every one who took 
an honorable part in the war, and of all \v\\o shall 
ever desire to learn its true history. Valuable as 
these Records are to the student, they need neverthe- 
less the elucidation of those, who, by reason of their 



viii Preface. 

personal knowledge of the men, and in other ways, 
are competent to sift the statements of those wit- 
nesses — most of them now silent forever — whose 
testimony they perpetuate. As it was my fortune 
to know personally most of the men who took a 
prominent part in the struggle for Missouri, and 
something about the character and credibility of 
every one of them, I feel sure that my little book 
will for that reason be a useful guide to those who 
may wish to comprehend that struggle aright. 

I have been greatly assisted in my search after 
the truth by many of the survivors of the war, 
who have furnished me important documents and 
valuable reminiscences, all which I have freely used. 
I would, perhaps, win favor for this volume if I were 
to mention their names, but higher considerations 
induce me to be silent. I must, however, express 
my great obligations to Mr. R. I. Holcombe, author 
of An Account of ilic Battle of Wilsons Creek, (or 
much valuable information. 

I have doubtless made many trifling mistakes and 
may have made some that are important, but no 
man ever labored more earnestly to ascertain the 
truth and to tell it plainly and impartially, than I 
have done, in preparing to write, and in writing, 
this account of the fight that was made for Mis- 
souri in 1861. 

New York, fanuary, 18S6. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE GOVERNOR. 

PAGE 

Election of Lincoln — Meeting of Congress — Buchanan's Mes- 
sage — He Denies the Right of Congress to Prevent Secession 
by Force, and Urges Concessions to the Soutli — The North 
Objects— The Crittenden Proposition — Tacit Agreement 
between the President and South Carolina as to Reinforcing 
Sumter — South Carolina Secedes — Major Anderson retires 
to Fort Sumter — South Carolina sends Commissioners to 
Washington — Failure of Negotiations — Meeting of the 
General Assembly of Missouri — Message of Governor Stew- 
art — Claiborne F. Jackson — His Inaugural 3 

CHAPTER II. 

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 

The President breaks off Negotiations with South Carolina, and 
Orders Fort Sumter to be Secretly Reinforced — Southern 
Senators advise their States to Secede — Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor Reynolds — His Advice to Missouri — The General As- 
sembly takes the First Steps towards Secession^— The Cotton 
States Seize Federal Forts, Arsenals, etc. — The President's 
Special Message — He Promises to Enforce the Laws 
Everywhere — The Star of the West off Charleston — The 
First Gun of the War — Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama 
Secede— The North offers Men and Money to the President 
— Union Meetings in Northern Cities — The Border Slave- 
holding States Declare that they will Resist the Invasion of 
the South — Great Union Meeting in St. Louis — It De- 
nounces Coercion — The General Assembly Calls a Conven- 
tion ; Receives a Commissioner from Mississippi ; and 
Pledges the State to Resist Coercion 27 



X Contents. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE PEOPLE. 

PAGE 

Canvass for the Convention —Secessionists, Union Men, Uncon- 
ditional Union Men — Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas Secede 
— Organization of the Confederate Government — Peace 
Conventions : They Distract the Border States, and Divide 
the Southern Men of Missouri — Rollins — Hall — Blair and 
the Wide Awakes — The Union Men and Submissionists 
carry the State — The Secession Majority in the Legislature 
gives way — Postponement of the Bill to arm the State — The 
Convention meets ; Sterling Price its President— Governor 
Jackson, Parsons, and Vest still defiant — The Commissioner 
from Georgia — Vest's Speech-^-The North and the South 
prepare for War — The General Assembly Submits— Failure 
of the Military Bill— The Debate in the House 53 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE CONVENTIOX. 

The State Convention — Gamble's Report and Resolutions — 
Amendments Proposed — Debates — William A. Hall — John 
B. Henderson — Prince L. Hudgins — John T. Redd — James 
O. Broadhead— Adoption of the Report and Resolutions 
— The General Assembly — Election of United States Sena- 
tor — Defeat of James S. Green — Blaine's Opinion of Him — 
The Metropolitan Police Bill — Vest's Adverse Report on the 
Action of the Convention —His Speech — The Legislature 
Rejects the Recommendations of the Convention and Ad- 
journs — The Revival of Secessionism — Defeat of the Coer- 
cionists in St. Louis — Election of a Conservative Mayor 78 

CHAPTER V. 

FRANK KI.AIR REliELS AGAINST THE STATE. 

The Department of the West — General William S. Harney — The 
St. Louis Arsenal — Major William H. Bell— Isaac H. 
Sturgeon — Federal Troops brought to St. Louis — Frank 
Blair organizes Rebellion against the State — The Home 
Guards — The Minute Men — Basil W. Duke — Frost's Bri- 



Contents. xi 

PAGE 

gade — Daniel M. Frost — His Negotiations with Major 
Bell — General Scott removes Bell — Major Hagner in com- 
mand , gg 

CHAPTER VI. 

NATHANIEL LYON. 

Nathaniel Lyon — A Sketch of the Man and of his Career — He is 
ordered to the St. Louis Arsenal — Asserts his Right to the 
Command there — The President Sustains Hagner — Lyon 
wins Blair's Confidence — Drills and Disciplines the Plome 
Guards — Renews his Contest with Hagner — Reinforcement 
of the Arsenal — The State Election — Overwhelming defeat 
of the Secessionists — Their Momentary Submission — Lyon 
and Blair again urge Hagner's Displacement — Lyon de- 
nounces Hagner's " Lnbecility or Damned Villainy," and 
General Scott's "Sordid Partisanship and Fondness for 
Toadies" — What He would do — The Minute Men try to 
Provoke a Riot in St. Louis — Lyon Assigned to Command 
of all the Troops at the Arsenal, but not over Hagner 
and the Arsenal — The St. Louis Election — Defeat of the 
Union Men — Their Alarm — Lyon in Command at St. Louis 
— He distrusts Lincoln, but has faith in " Almighty Truth. " iig 

CHAPTER VH. 

THE ARSENAL. 

Bombardment of Fort Sumter — The President calls for Seventy- 
five Thousand Troops — The Response of the North — Its 
effect at the South and in the Border States — The Missouri 
Republican — Governor Jackson's Reply — Frost's Advice — 
The Legislature Convened — A plan to Capture the Arsenal 
— Commissioners sent South for Siege Guns — Frost's Brigade 
Ordered into Encampment — The plan divulged to Harney 
and Lyon — Lyon Calls on the Governor of Illinois for 
Troops, and occupies the Hills around the x'Vrsenal — Bowen 
ordered to Report with his Command to Frost — Lyon author- 
ized to Arm the Home Guards — Harney Countermands the 
Order — Seizure of Liberty Arsenal by Secessionists — Har- 
ney ordered to Washington City— Lyon arms the Home 
Guards, and sends the Surplus Arms to Alton 139 



xii Contents. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

CAMP JACKSON. 

PAGE 

Douglas and the Northern Democrats Declare for the Union — 
The North Unanimous — Missouri Threatened on Three 
Sides by Federal Armies and St. Louis full of Federal Sol- 
diers—The Border States Hesitate — The Confederacy Does 
Nothing — Missouri Helpless and Submissive — The Govern- 
or still Resolute — He Purchases Arms and Powder— Camp 
Jackson— Lyon Authorized to Enlist Ten Thousand Men 
and to proclaim Martial Law in St. Louis— Elected Briga- 
dier-General of the Home Guards — Arms from the Confed- 
eracy taken to Camp Jackson — Lyon Visits the Camp in 
Disguise— Capture of Camp Jackson and the State Troops 
— Rioting and Bloodshed — The General Assembly Enacts 
the Military Bill and Confers Dictatorial Powers on the Gov- 
ernor — A Panic in St. Louis — Harney Resumes Command 
and Establishes Order in the City — Missourians see the 
Danger of Seceding and begin to Submit 158 

CHAPTER IX. 

BOTH SIDES PREPARE FOR W.AR. 

Harney approves the Capture of Camp Jackson — Occupies St. 
Louis — Asks for Troops from Iowa and Minnesota " for 
Operations in Missouri " — Adjournment of the Legislature 
— Sterling Price offers his service to the State — Is appointed 
Major-General— Appointment of Brigadier-Generals — Vol- 
unteers at Jefferson City — Marmaduke — McCulloch and Mc- 
Intyre — Organization of the State Guard begun — The Price- 
Harney Agreement — Dissatisfaction of Blair and Lyon — 
They Procure Harney's Removal — Lyon in Command of 
Missouri 177 

CHAPTER X. 

LYON DECLARES WAR. 

Blair and Lyon outline their Plan of Campaign— Federal Forces 
in and around Missouri— Defenceless Condition of the State 
— The Governor and Price prepare for War — Attempts to pre- 



Contents. xiii 

PAGE 

serve the Neutrality of the State — The Planters' House Con- 
ference — Lyon Declares War against the State — The Gov- 
ernor's Proclamation — He calls out the Militia — Determines 
to make a stand at Booneville and to hold the Missouri — 
Abandons Jefferson City and retires to Booneville — Gen- 
eral Price goes to Lexington 193 

CHAPTER XL 

BOONEVILLE AND CARTHAGE. 

Lyon sends Sweeny and Sigel to the South-west — Pursues the 
Governor — Occupies Jefferson City — Advances on Booneville 
— The Engagement at Booneville — Important Consequences 
— General Price at Lexington — Orders Rains to retreat 
southward towards Lamar— Hastens to meet McCulloch — 
Governor Jackson retreats toward Warsaw — The Cole Camp 
Affair — Guibor and Barlow — Burbridge — The Governor 
reaches Lamar — Is joined by Rains and Slack — Temporary 
Organization of the State Guard — Lyon gets ready to Pur- 
sue — Sturgis ordered to co-operate — Lyon and Sturgis move 
toward Clinton — Sigel tries to intercept the Governor — The 
Battle of Carthage — Defeat of Sigel 210 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE CONFEDERATES ENTER MISSOURL 

Ben McCulloch assigned to defence of the Indian Territory — 
Concentrates his force, including Pearce's Brigade, near 
Fort Smith — Governor Jackson, before leaving Jefferson 
City, asks him to enter Missouri — McCulloch asks the Presi- 
dent's consent — Advances to Maysville — Joins Price — 
Marches with him to rescue the Governor and the Missouri 
troops — Meets them — Price Assumes Command of the State 
Guard — Cowskin Prairie — Reorganization of the State Guard 
— Price's Difficulties — He surmounts them — Governor Jack- 
son, Price, and McCulloch try to secure the co-operation of 
Polk and Hardee — Polk sends Pillow to New Madrid, but 
Hardee refuses to co-operate — Price, McCulloch, and 
Pearce move against Springfield — They concentrate their 
armies at Cassville 229 



xiv Contents. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

LYON MOVES OUT TO ATTACK. 

PAGE 

Junction of Lyon and Sturgis near Clinton — They pursue the 
(Governor — Lyon learns of Sigel's Defeat — Hurries to Spring- 
field — Begs for Reinforcements — Denounces General Scott 
— Fremont assumes Command of the Western Department — 
Fails to reinforce Lyon — Lyon marches out to prevent the 
Junction of Price and McCulloch — The Skirmish at Dug 
Springs — Lyon retires to Springfield — Price induces Mc- 
Culloch to Advance by i-elinquishing the Command to him 
— The Confederates Camp on Wilson's Creek — McCulloch 
hesitates to Advance — Price's Urgency — A Council of War 
— A Night March Ordered and Countermanded — Lyon's 
Perplexity and Despair — He cannot Retreat — He Orders an 
Attack — His Last Letter to his Government 248 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 

Lyon marches out by Night, and Surprises the Confederates — 
—The Fight in the Cornfield— The Rout of Sigel— The Bat- 
tle on Bloody Hill — The Death of Lyon — His Army re- 
treats — The Dead and the Wounded 268 

CHAPTER XV. 

MCCULLOCH, PRICE, AND LYON. 

McCulloch lets the Union Army Escape — Its Flight to Rolla — 
The Confederate Government and McCulloch — His Mistak- 
en Estimate of the Missouri Troops — Their Condition and 
their true Character — Sterling Price — Lyon wins the Fight 
for Missouri 239 

Appendix 305 



Index. 



317 



I. POLITICAL. 



THE FIGHT FOR MISSOURI. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE GOVERNOR. 

Election of Lincoln — Meeting of Congress — Buchanan's Message — 
He Denies the Right of Congress to Prevent Secession by Force, 
and Urges Concessions to the South — The North Objects — The 
Crittenden Proposition — Tacit Agreement between the President 
and South Carolina as to Reinforcing Sumter — South Carolina 
^scedes — Major Anderson retires to Fort Sumter — South Carolina 
sends Commissioners to Washington — Failure of Negotiations — 
Meeting of the General Assembly of Missouri — Message of Gov- 
ernor Stewart — Claiborne F. Jackson — His Inaugural. 

The enactment in 1850 of a Fugitive Slave 
Law, some of whose provisions were not only 
inconsistent with the civilization of the age, but 
required citizens of Massachusetts, New York, and 
Ohio to do what no self-respecting Virginian could 
have been forced to do ; together with the repeal, 
in 1854, of the Missouri Compromise, brought about, 
in i860, the election of Abraham Lincoln to the 
Presidency, and the transfer of the Federal Govern- 
ment to a party which was pledged to prevent the 
extension of slavery beyond the limits of the 
States in which it was then established by law, and 



4 The Fight for Missouri. 

whose ablest and most influential leaders were 
known to be in favor of using all lawful means to 
abolish it even within those States. 

Thoroughly frightened by this fact, for they 
firmly believed that their well-being, and indeed 
their safety, were involved in the continued ex- 
istence of slavery, all of the Cotton States, except 
Texas (whose action was hindered by her governor, 
Gen. Houston), took instant steps to secede from 
the Union, and to establish a slave-holding Con- 
federacy ; and when Congress met on the 3d of 
December, it had become certain that one, at least, 
of these States would secede before the end of the 
year. 

President Buchanan, in calling the attention of 
Congress to this fact, in his annual message, im- 
plored it to consider carefully what the Government 
must do ; to consider whether it had the power by 
force of arms to compel a State to remain within 
the Union ; and whether, if it had the power, it 
would be expedient to exercise it. For his own 
part he did not believe that the Constitution dele- 
gated any such power to Congress, or to any other 
department of the Government ; but, on the con- 
trary, that to make war against a State was at vari- 
ance with the whole spirit and intent of the Consti- 
tution. " Congress," said he, " possesses many 
means of preserving the Union by conciliation, but 



TJie Governor. 5 

the sword was not placed in its hand to preserve it 
by force." The best way to preserve it was, in his 
Dpinion, to satisfy the just demands of the South 
by adopting a Constitutional amendment which 
should not only protect slavery in the States where 
it was already established, but in all of the Terri- 
tories, so long as they remained Territories ; and 
which should also compel the Northern States to 
restore fugitive slaves to their owners. He prom- 
ised that while Congress was considering this all- 
important matter he would, to the extent of his 
ability, defend the public property, and take care 
that the Federal laws should be enforced, in all the 
States. 

The President's recommendations were referred 
In both Senate and House to special committees, 
but it soon became manifest that the North would 
not give heed to them. Mr. Crittenden, therefore, 
submitted what became known as the Crittenden 
Proposition. It differed from the President's 
chiefly in this, that, while requiring Congress to en- 
force the rendition of fugitive slaves, and to protect 
slavery in the States where it then existed, it de- 
clared that slavery should never exist north of the 
Missouri Compromise line, but should be protected 
in all the territory south of that line (36° 30' north 
latitude). 

As the South claimed that it had the right to de- 



6 The Fight fo?- Missouri. 

mand protection for its slave property in all oi the 
common territory of the Union, it felt that it would 
be yielding a great deal for the sake of peace, and 
the preservation of the Union, if it consented to 
accept Mr. Crittenden's proposition. But every 
Southern State, with the exception of South Caro- 
lina, manifested its willingness to accept it. Most 
Northern Democrats quickly showed their willing- 
ness to sustain it, and the President, abandoning his 
own proposition, urged the country to adopt Mr. 
Crittenden's. 

Many Republicans, too, averse to strife and 
bloodshed, consented to it, while others, like Hor- 
ace Greeley, were ready to let the Cotton States go 
in peace, if they thought that they could do better 
out of the Union than in it. But the great majority 
of Republicans were not willing either to concede 
to the South the right to establish slavery in the 
Territories, or to let any State secede. They would 
not abandon, in the hour of victory, the principles 
for which they had manfully contended through 
forty years of defeat and disaster ; nor would they 
let those, whom they had just vanquished, destroy 
the Union in the very hour that it was about to 
be dedicated, as they believed, to a wider freedom 
and a higher humanity. They were content to await 
the fast-coming 4th of March. 

Meanwhile the Cotton States were all hastening 



The Governor. y 

towards secession. This brought the President to 
the consideration of the most important question 
that had ever been submitted to any President : 
Whether he should attempt to reinforce the Fed- 
eral forts in those States which were preparing to 
secede. 

While denying his own right, and the right of Con- 
gress, to n^ake war upon a State, he had expressly 
said in his message that it was his duty and his 
determination to protect the public property, and 
to enforce the laws, in all the States. On the other 
hand, he knew that, if he attempted to reinforce the 
forts at Charleston, the attempt would be regarded 
by the South Carolinians as a threat of subjuga- 
tion, and would be resented by them as an act of 
war. 

Happily the Representatives of South Carolina in 
Congress came to his assistance by giving him the 
strongest assurances that South Carolina would 
neither attack nor molest the forts, until her State 
Convention had met and decided to withdraw the 
State from the Union ; nor until she had sent com- 
missioners to treat with the Federal Government 
as to the forts and other matters ; provided the 
Government of the United States would not, mean- 
while, send any reinforcements to the forts, or 
change the military status in Charleston harbor. 

The President, while accepting these assurances 



8 The Fight for Missouri. 

" as a happy omen that peace might still be pre- 
served, and time be thus gained for reflection," 
replied that, whilst he could not promise not to rein- 
force the forts, it was his then determination not to 
reinforce them until they should be actually at- 
tacked, or until he had certain evidence that they 
were about to be attacked. 

Upon this tacit understanding both the President 
and the State continued to act in good faith until 
after the State had seceded. 

General Scott, who had been detained in New 
York by sickness, came to Washington on the I2th 
of December, and, being ignorant of the assurances 
which had been given to the President by the 
South Carolina representatives, urged him, at an 
interview on the 15th, to send a reinforcement of 
300 men to Major Anderson, at Charleston. The 
President, knowing that Major Anderson was in 
no danger of attack, and that an attempt to reinforce 
him would needlessly " impair the hope of compro- 
mise, provoke collision, and disappoint the country," 
refused to send the reinforcements. General Cass, 
who had insisted upon the President's compliance 
with General Scott's advice, thereupon resigned the 
Secretaryship of State (December 15th). The res- 
ignation was rather gladly accepted, and Judge 
Black became Secretary of State, while Edwin M. 
Stanton succeeded Black as Attorney-General. 



The Governor. o 

Howell Cobb had already resigned the Secretary- 
ship of the Treasury (December 8th) and returned 
to Georgia. 

On the 20th of December the South Carolina 
Convention adopted an ordinance of secession, and 
sent commissioners to Washington to treat with the 
United States Government as to the forts within 
her limits, and as to other matters. 

These commissioners reached Washington on the 
26th of December; but the very next morning — be- 
fore they had had time to present their credentials 
to the Secretary of State — they were themselves 
startled, and the whole country electrified, by the 
news that, during the preceding night. Major Ander- 
son had secretly dismantled Fort Moultrie, spiked 
its guns, burnt the gun-carriages, and removed his 
command to Fort Sumter, which occupied a more 
tenable, and a more commanding, position in the 
harbor. 

The Secretary of War, Governor Floyd, of Vir- 
ginia, protested against Major Anderson's conduct 
in a paper which he read, on the 27th of December, 
to the President, in presence of the Cabinet. In 
this paper he insisted that Major Anderson had, by 
removing his command to Fort Sumter, changed 
the military status at Charleston, and had thereby 
violated a solemn pledge of the Government ; that 
there was now but one way to vindicate the honor 



lO TJie Fight for Missouri. 

of the Administration and to prevent civil war ; 
and that was to withdraw the garrison from the 
harbor of Charleston altogether. He accordingly- 
asked the President to authorize him to make that 
order at once. The President refused to do this, 
and on the 29th of December the Secretary of War 
tendered his resignation, saying that he could no 
lon":er hold the office " under his convictions of 
patriotism, nor with honor; subjected as he was to 
the violation of solemn pledges and plighted faith." 
His resignation was instantly accepted, and Post- 
master-General Holt was transferred to the War 
Department. 

The South Carolina commissioners had presented 
their credentials to the President on the 28th. He 
said at once that he " could only recognize them as 
private gentlemen, and not as commissioners from 
a sovereign State," but would communicate to Con- 
gress — " the only competent tribunal " to which 
they could appeal — any proposition which they 
might have to offer. 

To this the commissioners replied that they could 
not offer any proposition, nor even enter upon the 
negotiations with which they had been entrusted, 
until Major Anderson's conduct had been satisfac- 
torily explained, nor until the United States troops 
had been removed not only from Fort Sumter, but 
away from the ha/bor of Charleston. These de- 



The Cover }ior. 1 1 

mands were formally repeated in a written com- 
munication which they sent to the President the 
next day. 

While considering the reply which he should 
make to this communication the President learned 
that the authorities of South Carolina had, on the 
day after Major Anderson's removal to Sumter, 
seized Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, the Custom- 
House, and the Post-Ofifice, and had raised the 
Palmetto flag over them all ; that every cfificer of 
the Customs — collector, naval ofificer, surveyor, and 
appraiser — together with the postmaster, had re- 
signed their appointments; and that, on Sunday, 
the 30th of December, the State had seized the 
Arsenal of the United States, containing $500,000 
worth of munitions of war, and had expelled the 
United States Government from all its property 
except Fort Sumter. 

Distressed and angered by these facts, the Presi- 
dent replied to the South Carolina commissioners 
that he would not withdraw the Federal troops 
from Fort Sumter ; but would, on the contrary, 
defend that fort by all the means in his power, 
against all attacks from whatever quarter they might 
proceed. This reply was delivered to the commis- 
sioners on the 31st of December. 

On that day the Senate Committee of Thirteen 
reported that they could not agree upon any settle- 



12 The Fight for Missouri. 

ment of the questions at issue between the North 
and the South. 

In the midst of the great excitement that was 
caused by these momentous events, the General 
Assembly of Missouri met at Jefferson City on the 
last day of December, i860. 

At the presidential election Lincoln had received 
in the entire State barely seventeen thousand of the 
one hundred and sixty-five thousand votes which 
were cast, and most of these were given to him by 
the German inhabitants of the State. Fifty-eight 
thousand eight hundred and one had been given to 
Douglas ; fifty-eight thousand three hundred and 
seventy-two to Bell, and thirty-one thousand three 
hundred and seventeen to Breckinridge. 

The General Assembly reflected the sentiment of 
the people as expressed in the presidential election. 
In the Senate there was only one Republican ; in 
the House there were twelve Republicans, thirty- 
seven Bell men, and eighty-three Democrats. 

The outgoing Governor, Robert M. Stewart, trans- 
mitted his message to the two Houses on the 3d of 
January. 

Stewart was a typical Northern Democrat. He 
believed that the Southern people had the constitu- 
tional right to take their slaves into all the Territo- 
ries and to hold them there, under the protection 
of the territorial and Federal laws, and that this 



The Governor. 1 3 

right ought to be assured to them. Not that he 
loved slavery, for he did not ; but because he loved 
the Union and revered the Constitution. 

Himself a native of New York, though long time 
a resident of Missouri, he felt none of that humilia- 
tion which most Southern men felt in view of the 
fact that the long political struggle between the 
North and the South had at last ended in the defeat 
of the South, and in the triumph of the abolitionized 
North ; none of that blended anger and apprehen- 
sion, which they felt, in contemplation of the fact 
that the South was thenceforth to be ruled by a 
party hostile to their institutions and unfriendly to 
their people. 

The right of secession he not only denied, but he 
denied it utterly ; and believed too that South Caro- 
lina was acting with consummate folly in attempt- 
ing to destroy a Union, which was the source of all 
her prosperity, and her surest bulwark and defence. 

As to Missouri, site certainly had no right to 
secede. For she belonged to the United States by 
right of purchase— had been bought by the Federal 
Government, and paid for out of its treasury. What- 
ever other States might do, it was her plain duty, 
and her interest, too, to remain within the Union. 

His message set forth clearly and strongly his own 
feelings and opinions at the beginning of the New 
Year, and it expressed in great measure the senti- 



14 The Fight for Missouri. 

ments of a majority of the people of Missouri, at 
that time. 

" Missouri occupies a position in regard to these 
troubles that should make her voice potent in the 
councils of the nation. With scarcely a disunionist 
per se to be found in her borders, she is still deter- 
mined to demand, and to maintain, her rights at every 
hazard. She loves the Union while it is the pro- 
tector of equal rights, but will despise it as the in- 
strument of wrong. She came into the Union upon 
a compromise, and is willing to abide by a fair com- 
promise still; not such ephemeral contracts as are 
enacted by Congress to-day, and repealed to-morrow; 
but a compromise, assuring all the just rights of the 
States, and agreed to in solemn Convention of all 
the parties interested. 

" Missouri has a right to speak on this subject, 
because she has suffered. Bounded on three sides 
by free territory, her border counties have been the 
frequent scenes of kidnapping and violence, and this 
State has probably lost as much, in the last two 
years, in the abduction of slaves, as all the rest of 
the Southern States. At this moment several of the 
western counties are desolated, and almost depopu- 
lated, from fear of a bandit horde, who have been 
committing depredations — arson, theft, and foul 
murder — upon the adjacent border. 

" Missouri haa a right, too, to be heard by reason 



TJic Governor. 15 

of her present position and power, as well as from 
the great calamities which a hasty dissolution of the 
Union would bring upon her. She has already a 
larger voting population than any of the slave States, 
with prospective power and wealth far bej'ond any 
of her sister States. . . . 

"Indeed, Missouri and the other border Slave 
States should be the first instead of the LAST, to 
speak on a subject of this kind. They have suf- 
fered the evil and the wrong, and they should be 
the first to demand redress. . . . 

*' As matters are at present Missouri will stand by 
her lot, and hold to the Union as long as it is worth 
an effort to preserve it. So long as there is hope 
of success she will seek for justice within the 
Union. She cannot be frightened from her pro- 
priety by the past unfriendly legislation of the 
North, nor be dragooned into secession by the 
extreme South. If those, who should be our 
friends and allies, undertake to render our property 
worthless by a system of prohibitory laws, or by re- 
opening the slave trade in opposition to the moral 
sense of the civilized world, and at the same time 
reduce us to the position of an humble sentinel to 
watch over and protect their interests, receiving all 
of the blows and none of the benefits, Missouri will 
hesitate long before sanctioning such an arrange- 
ment. She \v'ill rather take the high position of 



1 6 Tlie Fight for Missouri. 

armed neutrality. She is able to take care of her- 
self, and will be neither forced nor flattered, driven 
nor coaxed, into a course of action that must end in 
her own destruction. 

" If South Carolina and other Cotton States persist 
in secession she will desire to see them go in peace, 
with the hope that a short experience at separate 
government, and an honorable readjustment of the 
Federal compact, will induce them to return to 
their former position. In the mean time Missouri 
will hold herself in readiness, at any moment, to 
defend her soil from pollution and her property 
from plunder by fanatics and marauders, come 
from what quarter they may. The people of 
Missouri will choose this deliberate, conservative 
course, both on account of the blessings they have 
derived from the Union, and the untold and un- 
imagined evils that will come with its dissolution. 

"... Whilst I would recommend the adop- 
tion of all proper measures and influences to secure 
the just acknowledgment and protection of our 
rights, and in the final failure of this, a resort to 
the last painful remedy of separation ; yet, regard- 
ing, as I do, the American Confederacy as the 
source of a thousand blessings, pecuniary, social, 
and moral, and its destruction as fraught with in- 
calculable loss, suffering, and crime, I would here, 
in my last public official act as Governor of Mis- 



TJic Governor. 17 

souri, record my solemn protest against unwise and 
hasty action, and my unalterable devotion to the 
Union so long as it can be made the protector of 
equal rights." 

In the evening Claiborne F. Jackson took the 
oath of ofifice as Governor, in the presence of both 
Houses. 

Born in Kentucky, of Virginia parents, he had 
come to Missouri in his boyhood and found em- 
ployment in a country store in Howard County. 
By the time that he was thirty he hj;d acquired a 
sufificient fortune to retire from business and to de- 
vote himself to politics, for which he had a natural 
aptitude and great fondness. Saline County sent 
him to the Legislature in 1836. He was one of 
the delegates from Howard County to the State 
Convention of 1845, ^'^<^ one of its representatives 
in the Legislature in 1846. He was a member of 
the State Senate in 1848-9, and, as Chairman of 
the Committee on Federal Affairs, reported the 
Resolutions which bear his name. These resolutions 
took high Southern ground on the matter of slavery 
in the territory then just acquired from Mexico, and 
instructed Colonel Benton and his colleague in the 
United States Senate to conform their action to the 
doctrines therein laid down. Benton refused to obey, 
and appealed from the Legislature to the people of 
Missouri. In the angry contest v/hich ensued Jack- 



1 8 The Fight for Missouri. 

son bore a conspicuous part, and was ever after rec- 
oernized as one of the ablest leaders of the anti- 
Benton, or Southern Rights' Democrats. 

His election as Governor had devolved upon him 
the gravest responsibilities. He now assumed the 
office with becoming modesty, but with an unshak- 
able determination to defend the honor and the in- 
terests of Missouri against all assailants whatever. 

He was fifty-five years of age ; tall, erect, and 
dignified; a vigorous thinker, ^ and a fluent and 
forcible speaker, always interesting, and often elo- 
quent ; a well-informed man, thoroughly conversant 
with the politics of Missouri and of the Union ; 
with positive opinions on all public questions, and 
the courage to express and uphold them ; courteous 
in his bearing towards all men, for he was kind- 
hearted, and by nature a democrat ; and a truthful, 
honest, and honorable gentleman. He loved the 
Union, but not with the love with which he loved 
Missouri, which had been his home for forty years, 
nor as he loved the South, where he was born, and 
where his kindred lived. 

In his inaugural address to the General Assembly, 
he said, after rapidly commenting upon the growth 
of the antislavery party : 

" The prominent characteristic of this party . . . 
is that it is purely sectional in its locality and its 
principles. The only principle inscribed upon its 



TJie Governor. 19 

banner is Hostility to Slavery; ... its object, 
not merely to confine slavery within its present 
limits ; not merely to exclude it from the Terri- 
tories, and prevent the formation and admission of 
any slave-holding States ; not merely to abolish it in 
the District of Columbia, and interdict its passage 
from one State to another ; but to strike down its 
existence everywhere ; to sap its foundation in pub- 
lic sentiment ; to annoy and harass, and gradually 
destroy its vitality, by every means, direct or indi- 
rect, physical and moral, which human ingenuity 
can devise. The triumph of such an organization is 
not the victory of a political party, but the domina- 
tion of a Section. It proclaims in significant tones 
the destruction of that equality am>ong the States 
which is the vital cement of our Federal Union. It 
places fifteen of the thirty-three States in the posi- 
tion of humble recipients of the bounty, or sullen 
submissionists to the power, of a government, which 
they had no voice in creating, and in whose coun- 
cils they do not participate. 

" It cannot, then, be a matter of surprise to any 
— victors or vanquished — that these fifteen States, 
with a pecuniary intei*est at stake reaching the 
enormous sum of $3,500,000,000 should be aroused 
and excited at the advent of such a party to power. 
. . . Would it not rather be an instance of un- 
precedented blindness and fatuity, if the people and 



20 The Fight for Missouri. 

governments of these fifteen slave-holding States 
were, under such circumstances, to manifest quiet 
indifference, and to make no effort to avoid the de- 
struction which awaited them ? . . . 

"Accordingly, we find the result of the recent 
Presidential election has already produced its nat- 
ural effects. From Florida to Missouri a feeling of 
discontent and alarm has manifested itself, more or 
less violent, according to the imminence of the dan- 
ger, and the extent of the interest at stake. The 
cotton-growing States, having a larger and more 
vital interest in jeopardy than the Border States, 
arc the first to awaken to a sense of insecurity. 
The sagacious Southern statesman is fully aware 
that his section, although necessarily the last vic- 
tim, will be the greatest sufferer ; that when the out- 
posts yield, the citadel will not long afford safety. 
With them the alternative is the maintenance of 
that institution which Great Britain forced upon 
their ancestors, or the conversion of their homes 
into desert wastes. With them it is not a mere 
question of property, but, what is to them dearer 
than property or life, a question of duty and of 
honor. 

" It has been said to be quite easy to bear the 
calamities of our neighbors with philosophical 
equanimity. Let us not illustrate this maxim by 
criticising the precipitancy of the South. They are 



The Governor. 2 1 

not the aggressors. They only ask to be let alone. 
If some have regarded their action as hasty, has not 
the occasion been extraordinary ? I do not stand 
here to justify or to condemn the action of South 
Carolina in withdrawing her allegiance to the Fed- 
eral Government. She is a gallant State, and will 
not forfeit that renown which a long list of distin- 
guished dead has conferred on her history. When 
she unrolls that list — when she points to her Mar- 
ions and Sumters, and Jaspers and Moultries, and 
Laurenses and McDonalds, to her Pinckneys, and 
Rutledges, and Middletons, to her Lowndeses and 
Chevises, and McDufifies and Hamiltons, to her 
Haynes and Legares, to her Prestons and her But- 
lers, and to that pre-eminent statesman v/ho divided 
the public esteem with Webster and Clry — her sis- 
ter States, blessed with larger and more fertile terri- 
tory, may well covet the glory of having given birth 
to such citizens, and may at least safely leave the 
honor of the State in the hands of their descend- 
ants. If South Carolina has acted hastily, let not 
her error lead to the more fatal one — an attempt at 
coercion. 

" The destiny of the slave-holding States of this 
Union is one and the same. . . . The identity, 
rather than the similarity, of their domestic institu- 
tions ; their political principles and party usages ; 
their common origin, pursuits, tastes, manners, and 



22 The Fight for Missouri. 

customs ; their territorial contiguity and commer- 
cial relations — all contribute to bind them together 
in one sisterhood. And Missouri will in my opinion 
best consult her own interests, and the interests of 
the whole country, by a timely declaration of her 
determination to stand by her sister slave-holding 
States, in whose wrongs she participates, and with 
whose institutions and people she sympathizes. 

" These views are advanced, gentlemen, not upon 
a belief that all hope of the present Union is lost, 
but upon a conviction that the time has arrived 
when a further postponement of their consideration 
would be unwise and unsafe. The issue of present 
embarrassments depends entirely upon the senti- 
ments and action of the North. I trust that there 
is patriotism enough left in our common country to 
harmonize the conflicting views now in agitation, 
and to/ place the Union on a basis consistent with 
the honor and safety of its constituent members. 
So far as Missouri is concerned, her citizens have 
ever been devoted to the Union, and she will remain 
in it so long as there is any hope that it will main- 
tain the spirit and guarantees of the Constitution. 

" But if the Northern States have determined to 
put the slave-holding States on a footing of inequal- 
ity, by interdicting them from all share in the Ter- 
ritories acquired by the common blood and treasure 
of all ; if they have resolved to admit no more slave- 



The Governor. 23 

holding States into the Union ; and if they mean to 
persist in nulHfying that provision of the Constitu- 
tion, which secures to the slave-holder his property 
when found within the limits of States which do 
not recognize it, or have abolished it ; then they 
have themselves practically abandoned the Union, 
and will not expect our submission to a government 
on terms of inequality and subordination. 

" We hear it suggested in some quarters that the 
Union is to be maintained by the sword. Such 
suggestions, it is to be hoped, have sprung from 
momentary impulse, and not from cool reflection. 
The project of maintaining the Federal Government 
by force may lead to consolidation or despotism, 
but not to Union. . . . That stands upon the 
basis of justice and equality, and its existence can- 
not be prolonged by coercion. . . . The first 
drop of blood shed in a war of aggression upon a 
sovereign State will arouse a spirit which must 
result in the overthrow of our entire Federal sys- 
tem, and which this generation will never sec 
quelled. 

" As the ultimate fate of all the slave-holding 
States is necessarily the same, their determination 
and action in the present crisis should be the result 
of a general consultation. To produce united ac- 
tion there must be united counsel ; and as the 
wrong is common to all, the redress for the wrong 



24 The Fight for Missouri. 

should be submitted to the consideration and judg- 
ment of all. It may not become me, therefore, to 
suggest what ought to be the ultimatum to be in- 
sisted upon by the slave-holding States. Candor 
compels me to say, however, that a mere Congres- 
sional compromise is not to be thought of. . . . 
Experience shows that such compromises only lay 
the foundation for additional agitation. They are 
but laws, and like all other laws, liable to be re- 
pealed ; and their duration depends altogether upon 
the fluctuations of public opinion, operating through 
the representatives of that opinion at Washington. 
The object of Constitutional guarantees is to protect 
the rights of minorities, and it is to such guarantees, 
and not to Legislative compromises, that the South 
must look for protection and security. 
If the Northern States are willing to remain with 
the South under a general government, where do- 
mestic slavery is entitled to the protection of that 
government, instead of being the object of its hos- 
tility, they can have no reasonable objection so to 
declare in terms, and in a form which will leave no 
ground for cavil or misunderstanding. If they are 
not content with such an association, it is due to 
their own character, as well as to the rights of their 
associate States, that their determination should be 
made known. 

'' I am not without hope that an adjustment 



The Governor. 25 

alike honorable to both sections may be effected, 
. . . but in the present unfavorable aspect of 
public affairs it is our duty to prepare for the 
worst. We cannot avoid danger by closing our 
eyes to it. The magnitude of the interests now in 
jeopardy demands a prompt but deliberate consider- 
ation ; and in order that the will of the people may 
be ascertained and effectuated, a State Convention 
should, in my view, be immediately called. . . . 
In this way the whole subject will be brought di- 
rectly before the people at large, who will determine 
for themselves what is to be the ultimate action of 
the State. . . . 

" In view of the marauding forays which continue 
to harass our borders, as well as of the general un- 
settled condition of our political relations, a due re- 
gard to our honor and safety requires a thorough 
organization of our militia." 

Both Stewart and Jackson held the North solely 
responsible for the deplorable condition of the 
country ; both of them maintained that the only 
way to prevent the dissolution of the Union was for 
the North to give to the South Constitutional guar- 
antees against the threatened aggressions of the 
Abolitionists; and both insisted that if the North 
should refuse to give these guarantees, and the 
Southern States should thereupon attempt to with- 



26 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

draw from the Union, the Federal Government 
ought not to undertake to coerce them to remain 
within it, but should let them go in peace. 

Thus far they agreed, and thus far nine-tenths of 
all the people of Missouri agreed with them. 

But when they came to consider what Missouri 
ought to do, in case the Federal Government 
should undertake to maintain the Union by force 
of arms, Governor Stewart, true to his Northern 
birth and Northern associations, insisted that Mis- 
souri must adhere to the Union ; while Governor 
Jackson, true to his Southern birth and sympathy 
with the South, insisted with equal earnestness that 
she should stand by her sister slave-holding States, 
and share their destiny. 

But most men — nearly all men — still believed 
that a compromise would be agreed upon; that 
secession would be stayed ; that even South Caro- 
lina would resume her place in the Union ; and that 
Missouri would never be called upon to choose 
between the North and the South! 



CHAPTER II. 

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 

The President breaks off Negotiations with South Carolina, and Or- 
ders Fort Sumter to be Secretly Reinforced— Southern Senators 
advise their States to Secede — Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds — 
His Advice to Missouri — The General Assembly takes the First 
Steps towards Secession — The Cotton States Seize P'ederal Forts, 
Arsenals, etc. — The President's Special Message — He Promises to 
Enforce the Laws Everywhere — The Star of the West off Charles- 
ton — The First Gun of the War — Mississippi, Florida, and Ala- 
bama Secede — The North offers Men and Money to the President 
— Union Meetings in Northern Cities— The Border Slave-holding 
States Declare that they will Resist the Invasion of the South — 
Great Union Meeting in St. Louis — It Denounces Coercion — The 
General Assembly Calls a Convention ; Receives a Commissioner 
from Mississippi ; and Pledges the State to Resist Coercion. 

The President's declaration to the South Caro- 
h'na commissioners, that he not only would not 
withdraw the United States troops from Fort Sum- 
ter, but would, on the contrary, defend that strong- 
hold to the best of his ability, elicited from the 
commissioners, on the 2d of January, a reply which 
was, in the opinion of the President and his Cabi- 
net, " so violent, unfounded, and disrespectful," that 
he could not receive it. He therefore sent it back 
to the commissioners, and, the negotiations having 



28 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

been thus angrily terminated, they returned to 
South Carolina. 

This incident left no doubt in the minds of those 
who were made acquainted with its details, that the 
President would take prompt measures to repossess 
those forts which had been seized, and to reinforce 
and hold those over which the flag of the Union 
still floated. 

He had, in fact, already acted. For while negoti- 
ations with South Carolina were still pending — 
on the very Sunday, indeed, that Jie prepared the 
communication in which he announced to the com- 
missioners his purpose to hold Fort Sumter — he 
had concerted with General Scott and the Secre- 
tary of War plans for reinforcing and provision- 
ing Fort Sumter, and had that day ordered them 
and the Secretary of the Navy to secretly de- 
spatch to Sumter a fast-sailing steamer laden 
with men and supplies for the fort. General Scott 
insisted at first upon the immediate execution of 
this order, but finally assented to the President's 
suggestion that it would not be " gentlemanly and 
proper" to reinforce the fort till after the negotia- 
tions had been terminated. The order was ac 
cordingly withheld from execution until the com- 
missioners had left Washington. 

Friday, the 4th of January, had been set apart by 
the President, and hy the Governors of most of the 



TJic General Assembly. 29 

States which had not seceded, as a " Day of Na- 
tional Humiliation, Fasting, and Pra)^r." In no 
part of the Union was it more devoutly observed 
than in Missouri. 

Hardly, however, had the people risen from their 
supplications, when, with the coming of the next 
day's sun, salvos of artillery, reverberating from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, proclaimed the grim ap- 
proval with which the loyal North regarded Major 
Anderson's warlike act. 

On the same day the Star of the West, by order 
of the President, crept stealthily out of the harbor 
of New York, bearing men and munitions of war 
southward towards Sumter. 

On the same fateful day the Senators of Georgia, 
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and 
Arkansas, satisfied that the Federal Government was 
making ready to coerce their States by force of 
arms to remain within the Union, and that the 
President was even then sending troops to overawe 
them into submission, met at Washington and sol- 
emnly advised their respective States to secede at 
once and organize a slave-holding Confederacy. 

Missouri, awakened from her dreams of peace by 
the swelling din of the approaching conflict, seemed 
for a moment about to respond to the wise counsels 
of her chief magistrate, and to arm herself for in- 
evitable war. 



30 The Fig/it for Missouri. 

Among those who most urgently besought her 
people to follow these counsels, was the Lieutenant- 
Governor of the State, Thomas Caute Reynolds. 
He was then nearly forty years of age, a man of 
medium height and compact mould, with regular 
features, that were at once refined and strong — a 
rather handsome man. His jet-black hair and beard 
were always closely cut, and his dark eyes always 
shaded by gold-rimmed glasses, which served a two- 
fold purpose. A South Carolinian by birth, he was 
a Virginian by race, and in full sympathy wdth the 
conciliatory disposition of the Virginia people. He 
was a man of many accomplishments and of grace- 
ful manners, for he had been accustomed from child- 
hood to the usages and refinements of good society, 
and his active intellect had been highly cultivated 
both at home and abroad. Latin and Greek were 
almost as familiar to him as his own tongue, and he 
spoke French and German and Spanish fluently 
and gracefully. He was well taught in all the 
learning of the Schools, and an adept in the myste- 
rious ways of diplomacy, for which he had a strong, 
natural predilection, that had been strengthened 
by some service as Secretary of Legation and 
Charge d'AfTaires ad interim, near the Court of 
Madrid. Though he was a good speaker, it was 
in counsel and in action that he excelled ; for his 
busy intellect delighted to devise schemes, which it 



TJie General Assembly. 31 

pleased his tireless energy to carry out ; and the 
more difficult and the more intricate the pathway 
to success, the more did it fascinate his diplomatic 
brain, and the more command his unwearied efforts 
to thread its mazes and overcome all its difficulties. 

He was a man of tried courage, and had borne 
his part in several " affairs," in one of which he had 
wounded Gratz Brown. No one ever doubted his 
integrity, and he had always discharged with scru- 
pulous fidelity the duties of the various public 
offices which he had held. A somewhat diligent 
letter-writer, his letters were alike remarkable for 
their admirable style and chirography, and generally 
for their substantial good sense. He was wont to 
number them after the manner of diplomatists, and 
to keep a careful record of their contents. He 
sometimes wrote what he had better have left un- 
written, but his prudence and reticence, and a pas- 
sionless judgment, generally controlled his pen, as 
they always controlled his tongue. 

He had sought the nomination for Lieutenant- 
Governor, because of the actualities and the possi- 
bilities of that position in the troublous times, 
whose rapid approach he clearly foresaw. Prefer- 
ring Breckinridge to Douglas, he had, nevertheless, 
like Jackson, prudently — and fortunately, too, for 
the glory of Missouri — supported the candidacy of 
the gifted Illinoisan, and had thereby made his own 



32 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

election sure. Chosen Lieutenant - Governor in 
August, he began at once to prepare himself for the 
role which he proposed to enact. Diligent and 
painstaking at all times, he was doubly so now ; for 
he comprehended the vastness of the stage on which 
he was to appear, and the grandeur of the tragedy 
in which he proposed to play a conspicuous part. 
When Congress met in December, he hurried to 
Washington, and put himself in accord with the 
most thoughtful Southern leaders. Returning to 
Missouri, he anticipated both the message of Gov- 
ernor Stewart, and the inaugural of Governor Jack- 
son, by publishing, on the day that the Legislature 
met, a letter in which he expounded his own views, 
and advised Missouri what course to pursue in the 
grave crisis that was already at hand. 

In this letter he urged the General Assembly to 
forthwith declare the determination of Missouri to 
resist all attempts on the part of the Federal Gov- 
ernment to coerce any State to remain in the Union 
against her will, whether such coercion were at- 
tempted by the exhibition and use of force, or by 
peaceful efforts to collect the Federal revenues and 
enforce the Federal laws within her limits after she 
had seceded ; and pointed out very clearly " the 
transparent sophistry " of drawing a distinction, as 
President Buchanan had done, between " coercing a 
State," and " compelling the citizens of a seceded 



TJic General Assembly. 33 

State to obey the laws of the United States." " In 
our system," he said, " a State is its people, citizens 
compose that people, and to use force against cit- 
izens acting by State authority is to coerce the 
State and to wage war against it. To levy tribute, 
molest commerce, or hold fortresses, are as much 
acts of war as to bombard a city,' 

He also advised the State that to make her de- 
termination to oppose coercion effective, she must 
without delay organi ze her militia thoroughly, and 
make other pr^j5Sfatl®5-^Q<^ j^^teyer contingency 
might happen. While this w^ "^ng done she 
ought to cal\;a convention of alL_,-tne States, to 
devise, if poss?bIe?'somc final adjiKgtmcnt of all con- 
troversies. If she should fiiil to secure such adjust- 
ment before the 4th of March, she "should not 
permit Mr. Lincoln to exercise any act of govern- 
ment " within her borders. 

In appointing the Senate committees, the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, who was cx-officio President of the 
Senate, took good care to so constitute them that 
they should be favorable to the policy which he had 
thus proposed. 

Bills were immediately introduced (January 5) to 
provide for calling a State Convention ; to arm and 
equip the militia ; and one which was intended to 
take away from the Republican Mayor of St. Louis 
the power to call out the Wide-Awakes of that city 
3 



34 The Fight for Missouri. 

in the event of political disturbances there. These 
Widc-Awakcs were a semi-military organization, 
composed almost exclusively of anti-slavery Ger- 
mans, and it was feared that the Mayor would, if an 
opportunity occurred, invest them with the panoply 
of the law, and use them to subdue the Southern 
sympathizers and to hold the city for Lincoln. 

The prompt and almost unanimous favor with 
which the General Assembly received these meas- 
ures shows the strength of the feeling which was 
then forcing Missouri onward towards secession. 
To the casual observer it seemed to be irresistible, 
and the Southern Rights people were exultant and 
even defiant. 

Nor was fuel to feed the flames of passion want- 
ing in those early days of 1861. The Governors of 
all the Gulf States, except Texas, taught by the 
experience of South Carolina and warned by the 
President's declaration that he was determined to 
reinforce and hold all the Southern forts, resolved 
to forthwith seize and occupy the forts within their 
several States, without waiting, as South Carolina 
had unwisely done, for their own formal secession. 

The vigilant Governor of Georgia, Joseph E. 
Brown, with that courage and common sense which 
have distinguished his whole career, disdaining those 
forms which are useful in peace but mischievous in 
war, sent a detachment of State troops under Colo- 



TJie General Assembly. 35 

nel Alexander R. Lawton to seize and occupy Fort 
Pulaski, which commands the approach to Savannah 
from the ocean ; and this order was executed on the 
3d of January. 

On the 4th, Governor Moore, of Alabama, seized 
the United States Arsenal at Mt. Vernon, and on 
the 5th occupied Forts Morgan and Gaines, which 
guard the approach to Mobile. In announcing the 
fact to the President, he said that he had seized 
these forts because " it would have been an unwise 
policy, suicidal in its character, to have permitted 
the Government of the United States to make, 
undisturbed, preparations within the State to en- 
force by war and bloodshed an authority which it 
was the fixed purpose of the people of Alabama to 
resist to the uttermost of their power." 

Florida for like reasons seized the United States 
Arsenal at Apalachicola on the 6th, and Fort ]\Iar- 
ion at St. Augustine on the 7th. 

On the 9th of January the President laid before 
Congress the correspondence which had taken place 
between himself and the South Carolina commis- 
sioners. He also informed that body that forts, 
arsenals, and magazines of the United States had 
been seized by several of the States which had not 
yet seceded, and declared that the fact could no 
longer be disguised that the country was " in the 
midst of a great revolution." 



36 The Fight for Missouri. 

The responsibility for this condition of affairs 
rested, he said, upon Congress alone, and it was for 
Congress to adopt such measures as would secure 
peace and union to a distracted country. He there- 
fore implored them, in heaven's name, to submit the 
Crittenden Compromise to a vote of the people, so 
that the people might, as they surely would, " redress 
the serious grievances which the South have suffered," 
and bring back peace and harmony to the country. 

While reiterating the opinion which he had ex- 
pressed in his annual message, that neither he nor 
Congress had any right to make aggressive war 
upon any State, he now asserted the " clear and 
undeniable right " of the Federal Government " to 
use military force defensively against those who re- 
sist the Federal officers in the execution of their 
legal functions, and against those who assail the 
property of the Government." 

But while admitting that it was Jiis duty, and de- 
claring that it was Jiis purpose, to collect the public 
revenues and to protect the public property every- 
where, so far as might be practicable, he said that 
it was for Congress to enact the laws which would 
give him the power to execute this duty ; and that 
it should do this promptly. 

He would take care meanwhile that the peace 
of the District of Columbia should not be disturbed 
during the remainder of his term of office. 



The General Assembly. ^y 

Neither Congress nor the country paid any atten- 
tion to the peaceful recommendations of the Presi- 
dent ; for on that very day the first gun of the war 
was fired, and the Star of the West, which had been 
sent to the rehef of Sumter, was driven back to sea 
by the batteries which South CaroHna had erected 
for the defence of the harbor of Charleston. 

The news sped over the land with the rapidity of 
thought. The President's message was read by the 
light of the lurid glare of that Southern cannonade. 
Northern men thought, not of conciliation, but of 
resenting the insult to the flag of the Union. 
Southern men were enraged by what they believed 
to be the President's duplicity, and his attempt to 
overawe them. Both read the message to see what 
the President would do. Both saw in it his fixed 
purpose to make war upon the South, reluctantly, 
sadly, and almost in despair, but to make war, nev- 
ertheless, because he believed that it was his duty 
to execute the laws and to protect the property of 
the Federal Government. 

Louisiana, warned by her senators at Washington 
that reinforcements were on the way to Fort St. 
Philip and Fort Jackson, which guard the entrance 
to the Mississippi and are the only defences of 
New Orleans in that direction, took possession of 
the arsenal at Baton Rouge on the loth of January 
and occupied the forts the next day. 



38 The Fight for Missouri. 

Mississippi had seceded on the 9th. Florida se- 
ceded on the loth, and as her troops were already- 
gathering at Pcnsacola, Lieutenant Slemmer, com- 
manding the forts in that harbor, transferred his 
forces from the mainland to Fort Pickens. Florida 
immediately occupied the abandoned barracks, forts, 
and navy-yard. 

On the nth (January) Alabama seceded and in- 
vited all of the slave-holding States to meet the 
people of Alabama by their delegates in convention 
on the 4th of February at the city of Montgomery, 
for the purpose of consulting with each other as to 
the most effectual mode of securing concerted and 
harmonious action in whatever measures might be 
deemed most desirable for their common peace and 
security. 

Such was the reply of the Cotton States to the 
President's attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, and 
to his threat to coerce the South into obedience to 
the Federal laws. 

The North was just as prompt and decisive in re- 
senting the insult to the flag of the Union, and in de- 
claring its determination to sustain the Government. 
On the nth of January the Legislature of New York 
adopted the following preamble and resolutions: 

" IVhereas, treason, as defined by the Constitution 
of the United States, exists in one or more of the 
States of this Confederacy; and whereas, the insur- 



The General Assembly. 39 

gent State of South Carolina, after seizing the post- 
offices, custom house, moneys, and fortifications 
of the Federal Government, has, by firing into a 
Government vessel, ordered by the Government to 
convey troops and provisions to Fort Sumter, virtu- 
ally declared war ; and whereas, the forts and prop- 
erty of the United States Government in Georgia, 
Alabama, and Louisiana have been unlawfully seized 
with hostile intention ; and whereas, further. Sena- 
tors in Congress avow and maintain these treason- 
able acts ; therefore, 

'■'■ Resolved, That the Legislature of New York, pro- 
foundly impressed with the value of the Union, and 
determined to preserve it unimpaired, hail with joy 
the recent firm, dignified, special message of the 
President of the United States ; and that we tender 
to him through the Chief Magistrate of our own 
State whatever aid in men and money he may re- 
quire to enable him to enforce the laws and uphold 
the authority of the Federal Government ; and that 
in defence of ' the more perfect Union,' which has 
conferred prosperity and happiness on the American 
people, renewing the pledge given and redeemed by 
our fathers, we are ready to devote ' our fortunes, 
our lives, and our sacred honor' to upholding the 
Union and the Constitution." 

The Legislatures of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minne- 
sota, Wisconsin, and Illinois spoke out in similar 



40 The Fight for Missouri. 

tones, and made it plain that every Northern State 
would exert its whole power to maintain the Union 
by force. 

There were, however, in every Northern State 
many men who shrank from the thought of a bloody 
war, and who believed that the Union could not be 
preserved by violence. 

On the 31st of January a great meeting was held 
in the city of New York to consider the condition 
of the country. At this meeting James S. Thayer, 
an old line Whig, made a speech, in which he said : 

" We can, at least, in an authoritative way and in 
a practical manner, arrive at the basis of a peaceable 
separation (cheers). We can, at least, by discussion, 
enlighten, settle, and concentrate the public senti- 
ment of the State of New York upon the question, 
and save it from that fearful current which, circui- 
tously but certainly, sweeps madly on through the 
narrow gauge of 'the enforcement of the laws 'to 
the shoreless ocean of civil war ! (Cheers.) Against, 
this under all circumstances and in every place and 
form we must now, and at all times, oppose a reso- 
lute and unfaltering resistance. . . . 

" It is announced that the Republican Adminis- 
tration will enforce the laws against, and in, all the 
seceding States. . . . 

" You remember the story of William Tell. . . . 
Let an arrow winged by the Federal power strike 



The General Assembly. 41 

the heart of an American citizen, and who can 
number the avenging darts that will cloud the 
heavens in the conflict that will ensue? (Prolonged 
applause.) What then is the duty of the State of 
New York? What shall we say to our people 
when we come to meet this state of facts ? That 
the Union must be preserved ! But if that cannot 
be, what then ? Peaceable separation. (Applause.)" 

Ex-Chanccllor Walworth said : 

" It would be as brutal, in my opinion, to send 
men to butcher our own brothers of the Southern 
States, as it would be to massacre them in the 
Northern States. We are told, however, that it is 
our duty to enforce, and that w^e must enforce, the 
laws. But why ? And what laws are to be enforced ? 
There were laws that were to be enforced in the 
time of the American Revolution. Did Lord Chat- 
ham go for enforcing those laws? No ! he gloried 
in the defence of the liberties of America. He 
made that remarkable declaration in the British Par- 
liament : 'If I were an American citizen, instead of 
being, as I am, an Englishman, I never would sub- 
mit to such laws, never, never , never!'" 

Edward Everett, speaking at Faneuil Hall on 
February 2d, said : 

"To expect to hold fifteen States in the Union 
by force is preposterous. The idea of a civil war 
accompanied, c.s it would be, by a servile insurrec- 



42 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

tion, is too monstrous to be entertained for a mo- 
ment. If our sister States must leave us, in the 
name of Heaven let them go in peace ! " 

The border slave-holding States were outspoken 
against coercion. 

On the 6th of January, Governor Hicks, in an 
address to the people of Maryland, assigning his 
reasons for refusing to convene the Legislature, 
said : " Maryland is with the South in sympathy and 
feeling. She demands from the North the repeal of 
its offensive unconstitutional statutes, and appeals 
to it for new guarantees. She will wait a reason- 
able time for the North to purge her Statute Book, 
so as to do justice to her Southern brethren, and if 
her appeals are vain, she will make common cause 
with her sister States in resistance to tyranny, if 
need be." 

The Virginia Legislature met on the 7th. Gov- 
ernor Letcher, while condemning the action of 
South CaroHna, insisted that the North had brought 
about the present condition of affairs, and that it 
was for it to end the rising strife. He declared 
that he would regard any attempt of Federal troops 
to pass across Virginia for the purpose of coercing a 
Southern State as an act of invasion to be repelled 
by force. On the 19th the Legislature resolved: 
That if all efforts to reconcile the differences be- 
tween the two sections of the country should prove 



The General Assembly. 43 

abortive, then, every consideration of honor and in- 
terest demanded that Virginia should unite her des- 
tinies with those of her sister slave-holding States." 
This resolution was unanimously adopted, and 
$1,000,000 were appropriated for arming and equip- 
ping the militia. 

The Legislature of Tennessee called a State Con- 
vention on the I2th of January, and on the i8th 
adopted these resolutions: 

" That this General Assembly has heard with pro- 
found regret of the resolutions recently adopted by 
the State of New York, tendering men and money 
to the Presid-ent of the United States, to be used in 
coercing certain sovereign States of the South into 
obedience to the Federal Government. 

" That this General Assembly receives the action 
of the Legislature of New York as the indication 
of a purpose on the part of the people of that State 
to further complicate existing difficulties by forcing 
the people of the South to the extremity of submis- 
sion or resistance ; and so regarding it, the Governor 
of the State of Tennessee is hereby requested to 
inform the Executive of the State of New York, 
that it is the opinion of this General Assembly that 
whenever the authorities of that State shall send 
armed forces to the South for the purpose indicated 
in said resolutions, the people of Tennessee, unit- 
ing with their brethren of the South, will, as one 



44 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

man, resist such invasion of the soil of the South at 
all hazards and to the last extremity." 

On the 17th, Governor Magofifin said to the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Kentucky that though Kentucky 
disapproved of the hasty and inconsiderate action of 
the seceding States, Kentuckians would never stand 
by with folded arms while those States were strug- 
gling for their Constitutional rights, and were being 
subjugated by an antislavery Government. On the 
2 1st, the Legislature adopted the Tennessee Reso- 
lutions. 

Missouri seemed to be on the very verge of se- 
cession. Even St. Louis denounced the coercion of 
the South. At a great Union m.eeting held there 
on the 1 2th of January, a meeting composed of 
men who " believed that the rights and property of 
all sections of the country could be better protected 
within the American Union than by destroying the 
Government " — a meeting called and controlled by 
such staunch loyalists as Nathaniel Paschall, Hamil- 
ton R. Gamble, James E. Yeatman, and Robert 
Campbell — resolutions were unanimously adopted 
declaring that 

" 6. The possession of slave property is a Consti- 
tutional right, and, as such, ought to be recognized 



The Genci'al Assembly, 45 

by the Federal Government. And if the Federal 
Government shall fail and refuse to secure this 
right, the Southern States should be found united 
in its defence, in which event Missouri will share 
the common duties and common dangers of the 
South. 

"8. . . . We cordially approve of the prin- 
ciples of adjustment contained in what are known as 
the Crittenden Propositions. . . . 

" 10. In the opinion of this meeting, the employ- 
ment of the military forces of the Government to 
enforce submission from the citizens of the seceding 
States will inevitably plunge the countr}' in civil 
war. . . . We therefore earnestly entreat, as well 
the Federal Government as the seceding States, to 
withhold and stay the arm of military power, and 
on no pretext whatever to bring on the nation the 
horrors of civil war until the people themselves can 
take such action as our troubles demand. 

*' II. The people of Missouri should meet in con- 
vention for the purpose of taking action in the 
present state of the nation's affairs, at the same 
time to protect the Union of the States and the 
rights and authority of this State under the Consti- 
tution." 

On the 14th The Republican^ the great conserva- 
tive journal of the State, the mouth-piece of her 
rich men and merchants, in a leader addressed to 



46 The Fight for Missouri. 

Abraham Lincoln, urging him to save the Union by 
advising his followers to assent to the re-enactment 
of the Missouri Compromise, said : 

'' Six States have already gone out of the Union 
so far as their own action is concerned, hastily, and 
without sufficient cause, as we believe, but still they 
have assumed an attitude of independence of the 
Government of the United States, and what is to 
be done ? To attempt to coerce them back by mili- 
tary force will bring ruin upon every State in this 
Union. One-half of your own State will resist any 
attempt to organize or march an army for the sub- 
jugation of Missouri or any of the revolting States; 
and Kentucky and Tennessee, when the worse 
comes to the worst, will again become ' the dark and 
bloody ground,' before they will suffer their soil to 
be polluted by the tread of armed hosts marching 
to the slaughter of their neighbors and friends and 
kinsmen in the Southern States." 

The General Assembly was not slow to respond 
to the feeling of the people. 

The bill to call a Convention to consider whether 
Missouri should secede, and to adopt measures for 
vindicating the sovereignty of the State, and the 
protection of her institutions, was reported back to 
both Houses on the 9th of January, and passed both 
Houses on the i8th. In the Senate only two votes 
were recorded against its passage. In the House 



TJie General Assembly. 47 

105 members voted for it and only eighteen against 
it. Of these latter, eleven were from St. Louis. 

The passage of the bill by such a majority was a 
great triumph for the Southern Rights men, and 
they, in order to emphasize the fact, now determined 
to proclaim the sympathy of the State with the 
South, by a bold act, which should intensify the en- 
thusiasm of their own adherents, and rally to their 
support the timid and irresolute, of whom there were 
not a few in every county. The opportunity to do 
this in a marked way had been afforded them by the 
arrival at the capital of a commissioner, whom the 
State of Mississippi had sent to ask the co-opera- 
tion of Missouri in the adoption of " measures for 
the common defence and safety of the slave-holding 
States." Accordingly, Governor Jackson, immedi- 
ately upon the passage of the bill, notified the Legis- 
lature that this commissioner, Mr. Russell, would be 
pleased to confer with them as to the objects of his 
mission. A joint committee was at once appointed 
to wait upon him, and invite him to address the 
General Assembly ; and the ceremony was arranged 
for that very evening. 

At the appointed hour the Senate, preceded by 
its officers, entered the hall of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and took the seats which had been as- 
signed to them. And then the Governor and other 
chief officers of the State, and the Judges of the 



48 The Fight for Missouri. 

Supreme Court were announced, and took their 
seats within the bar. 

And now a Httle scene was enacted, which, trifling 
in itself, iUustrates the temper of the time, and the 
then disposition of the Legislature and the people. 

The committee being about to bring in the com- 
missioner, the President of the Joint Convention 
(Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds) said : 

" When the Commissioner from the State of Mis- 
sissippi is announced, the members of the General 
Assembly will rise to receive him." 

John D. Stevenson, a Republican representative 
from St. Louis, sprang to his feet. 

"Are we here, Mr. President, to do homage to the 
ambassador of some foreign potentate? " 

President. — " I understand, sir, that this is a joint 
session of the General Assembly, to listen to an ad- 
dress from the Commissioner of the State of Missis- 
sippi, and I hope, for the honor of all parties, that 
the member from St. Louis will take his seat." 

Stevenson. — " Shall I have a chance ? " 

President. — "Take your scat." 

A voice. — " Good ! " 

Stevenson. — " I desire to have a chance." 

President.— " Take your seat." 

A voice. — " Better ! " 

Stevenson. — " Mr. President, I can read, sir, the 
rules that govern this body, and I suppose, if I am 



The General Assembly. 49 

well informed, that when the President rides me out 
of order, it is his duty to state why he so rules." 

President. — " The business of this session is to 
hear a speech from the Commissioner from Missis- 
sippi, and all other business is out of order." 

Stevenson. — " I understand that the President 
commands the members to rise." 

President. — " I will change it to a request, and I 
hope that no member of this General Assembly 
will have the indecency to refuse to rise." 

Stevenson. — " Oh ! that will do, sir." 

The commissioner was thereupon introduced, the 
members rising from their seats to receive him. 

He made a long address, the substance of which 
was that he had been charged by the General 
Assembly of Mississippi to inform the people of 
Missouri that Mississippi had formally dissolved 
her connection with the United States, and, in con- 
junction with other slave-holding States, was about 
to organize a Southern Confederacy ; that the old 
Union had even now ceased to exist, and could 
never be reconstructed ; that war between the 
North and the South was inevitable, and would be 
begun within ninety days; that the guns which had 
driven back the Stai' of the West from the harbor 
of Charleston had already given the signal for the 
strife; and that in view of all these facts the people 
4 



50 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

of Mississippi earnestly invited the people of Mis- 
souri to unite with their Southern kindred for their 
common defence and their common safety. 

This address was listened to with the greatest 
attention, and received with every manifestation of 
approval and sympathy. At its conclusion the 
joint session was dissolved ; but the demonstration 
in favor of an alliance with the South was noisily 
kept up till almost dawn. 

Mr. Halliburton had already (i6th January) 
offered in the Senate a resolution against coercion, 
similar to that which Virginia had adopted. But 
the matter was brought more formally before the 
General Assembly, on the 28th, by Mr. Vest (the 
Patrick Henry of resistance in Missouri), who then 
reported from the Committee on Federal Relations 
a preamble and resolutions, which, while following 
for the most part those of the Tennessee Legislat- 
ure, differ from them in some important particu- 
lars. 

" Whereas we have learned with profound regret 
that the States of New York and Ohio have recently 
tendered men and money to the President of the 
United States for the avowed purpose of coercing 
certain sovereign States of the South into obedi- 
ence to the Federal Government, 

" Therefore, Resolved, That we regard with the 
utmost abhorrence the doctrine of coercion, as in- 



TJie General Assembly. 51 

dicated by the action of the States aforesaid, believ- 
ing that the same would end in civil war, and 
forever destroy any hope of reconstructing the Fed- 
eral Union. So believing, we deem it our duty to 
declare that, if there is any invasion of the slave 
States for the purpose of carrying such doctrine 
into effect, it is the opinion of this General As- 
sembly, that the people of Missouri v/ill instantly 
rally on the side of their Southern brethren to re- 
sist the invaders at all hazards, and to the last ex- 
tremity. 

" Resolved, That the Governor of this State be 
requested to transmit to the Governors of New 
York and Ohio the above resolutions." 

These resolutions were ably supported by Vest, 

Harris, and Cunningham, and opposed vigorously 

,by Partridge and Peckham. They were adopted on 

the 29th, eighty-nine members voting for them and 

fourteen against them. 

The Senate, having been notified of the passage 
of these resolutions by the House, accepted them as 
a substitute for the less vigorous resolutions of Sen- 
ator Halhburton, and finally took them up and 
concurred in them (February 15th), only one Sen- 
ator (Dr. Morris of St. Louis) voting against them. 

By this action of her General Assembly, Missouri 
was solemnly pledged, so far as her Representatives 
could pledge her, to resist the coercion of the 



52 The Fight for Missoitri. 

seceding States, at all hazards, and to the last ex- 
tremity. 

But behind all this remained the yet unanswered 
question, whether the General Assembly expressed 
the feelings and pronounced the purpose of the 
people of Missouri. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PEOPLE. 

Canvass for the Convention — Secessionists, Union Men, Uncondi- 
tional Union Men — Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas Secede — Organ- 
ization of the Confederate Government — Peace Conventions : They 
Distract the Border States, and Divide the Southern Men of Mis- 
souri— Rollins— Hall— Blair and the Wide Awakes— The Union 
Men and Submissionists carry the State — The Secession Majority 
in the Legislature gives way — Postponement of the Bill to arm the 
State — The Convention meets ; Sterling Price its President — Gov- 
ernor Jackson, Parsons, and Vest still Defiant — The Commissioner 
from Georgia — Vest's Speech — The North and the South prepare 
for War — The General Assembly Submits — Failure of the Military 
Bill — The Debate in the House. 

The Act calling a State Conv^ention provided 
that the delegates should be chosen on the i8th of 
February, and that they should convene at Jeffer- 
son City on the last day of that month. 

The canvass was straightway opened by each of 
the three parties into which the people of the 
State were divided — Secessionists, Conditional 
Union men, and Unconditional Union men. 

Conspicuous among the Secessionists were the 
Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of the State, a 
majority of the Members of the General Assembly, 
both United States Senators (James S. Green and 
Trusten Polk), and General David R. Atchison. 



54 The Fight for Missouri. 

They were earnestly supported by the Jefferson 
City Examiner, the St. Louis Bulletin, and other 
journals. They did not desire the disruption of 
the Union. Few of them beHeved in the rig-ht of 
secession. All of them deplored the precipitate 
action of South Carolina, and the now apparent de- 
termination of the other Cotton States to follow 
in her footsteps. But believing that the withdrawal 
of all those States from the Union would soon be 
an accomplished fact ; that they would establish 
a Southern Confederacy ; that all of the other 
slave-holding States would eventually be forced to 
enter this Confederacy ; and that war between it 
and the Government of the United States would 
necessarily follow ; they thought that it was the 
duty of Missouri to declare emphatically that in 
that event she would take her stand with the South, 
to which she was bound by every tie that holds a 
people together — race, sympathy traditions in com- 
mon, a common history, like institutions, and like 
interests — and with it fight against the North. 

The only formidable opponents of the Secession- 
ists were the Conditional Union men. These grad- 
ually fell under the leadership of Hamilton R. 
Gamble, Alexander W. Doniphan, James S. Rollins, 
William A. Hall, John S. Phelps, ex-Governor 
Stcv/art, Sterling Price and the St. Louis Republican, 
then conducted by Nathaniel Paschall, a man of 



The People. 55 

mature age, great experience, strong intellect, and 
consummate common sense. Under the guidance 
of these astute managers the Conditional Union 
men assumed a position which, from the moment 
of its adoption, began to divide the Secessionists. 
Few of these, as has been said, were primarily in 
favor of secession. All of them regarded the disso- 
lution of the Union with sorrow and apprehension. 
They would have gladly persuaded the seceding 
States to return into the Union, and to trust to 
peaceful methods for the protection of their rights 
and the maintenance of their honor. They were not 
particularly devoted to the institution of slaver\', 
nor were they deeply interested in the maintenance 
of that system. They were Secessionists, only be- 
cause they believed that the Union had been dis- 
solved, that its reconstruction was impossible, that 
war was inevitable, and that in war the place of Mis- 
souri was by the side of the Southern States, of 
v.-hich she was one. But all around them were 
Southern-born men and many Northern-born citi- 
zens, who, wliile ready to declare that jMissouri 
would resist every attempt on the part of the 
United States Government to coerce the seced- 
ing States back into the Union, believed that the 
North, rather than involve the country in a dis- 
astrous v.-ar, would concede to the South her clear 
Constitutional rights, and thus re-establish the 



56 The Fight for Missouri. 

Union upon a firmer basis than it had ever rested 
upon. 

This behef, or rather this hope, was the foundation 
on which Gamble and Hall and Paschall builded 
their party. In their resolutions, and speeches 
and addresses, they declared that Missouri was 
firmly attached to the Union, and would adhere to 
it so long as there was reason to hope that the 
North would adopt th.e Crittenden Proposition, or 
give other Constitutional guarantees to the South 
that the United States would protect slavery wher- 
ever it lawfully existed ; but that if the North re- 
fused to give such guarantees within a reasonable 
time, it would be the duty of Missouri to secede 
from the Union and to unite with the South for 
the protection of Slavery and the defence of their 
common interests. They also declared that if the 
North, pending attempts to adjust matters peace- 
ably, should make v/ar upon any Southern State, 
Missouri would at once take up arms in defence of 
such State. By this wise action the Conditional 
Union men won the sympathy of the slave-holders 
of Missouri, and of her mercantile and manufactur- 
ing classes, and rich land owners, all of whom re- 
garded war as the greatest of evils. The zeal, the 
earnestness, and the ability with which they con- 
ducted the canvass, together with the course of 
events outside of the State, soon brought into their 



The People. 57 

ranks many Secessionists, who had taken hope 
again. 

The Unconditional Union men, still calling them- 
selves Republicans, took the ground that they would 
support the Government in whatever measures it 
might adopt to maintain the Union and to force the 
Southern States to obey its laws. The one leader 
of this party was Francis P. Blair, Jr. Up to this 
time it had been composed almost exclusively of 
Germans, a few antislavery men of New England 
origin, and the personal followers of Blair, Bates, and 
Brown. The Presidential election had shown that 
they numbered only one-tenth of the voters of the 
State. Blair saw in the action of the Conditional 
Union men an opportunity to greatly increase his 
own following, by drawing to it those supporters of 
Bell, Douglas, and Breckinridge who were unwilling 
to vote for the secession of Missouri, even if the 
North should refuse to adopt the Crittenden Com- 
promise. There were many such men ; but they 
looked upon the Republicans as the cause of all the 
troubles in which the country was involved, and 
felt an unconquerable repugnance to joining that 
party. They were Union men, but they would not 
be Republicans. 

Blair determined to make their co-operation with 
the Republicans easy, by organizing both as the 
Unconditional Union party. In this he was violently 



58 The Fig] it for Missouri. 

opposed by the less intelligent of the Republicans, 
but, with the support of Broadhead, Glover, Filley, 
and How, he carried his point, and when the time 
for selecting candidates for the Convention came, 
the call for the meetings which were to choose 
members of the nominating conventions was ad- 
dressed to "all Unconditional Union men." In 
these meetings a great many anti-Republicans took 
part, and united in the selection of delegates to the 
nominating conventions. 

When the St. Louis convention met, " the Irrec- 
oncilables " renewed their opposition to Blair's wise 
course, and contended that no one should be nomi- 
nated as a candidate for the State Convention who 
had not voted for Lincoln. Blair said in reply 
that he cared little to what party men had be- 
longed. What he wanted was men who were noiv, 
and who would hereafter, under all circumstances, 
and in every emergency, be for the Union ; that 
he himself intended to stand by it to the end ; 
to oppose in every way the secession of Missouri ; 
and if Missouri should secede, to still try to hold St. 
Louis fast to the Union, and that he desired the 
help of every man who was resolved to do likewise ; 
that this was no time to struggle for a party ; but 
it was now the first and chief duty of every man 
to struggle for the Union. His counsels prevailed, 
and a composite ticket was nominated — seven 



The People. 5q 

Douglas Democrats, three Union men who had 
voted for Bell, and four that had voted for Lincoln. 

The canvass, being thus opened, was conducted 
with great zeal, and in the midst of ever-increasing 
excitement, for during its progress events of the 
gravest importance were occurring every day both 
within and without the State. 

Georgia seceded on the i8th of January, Louisi- 
ana on the 26th, and Texas on the 1st of February ; 
and on the 4th of February, delegates from these 
three States, and from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi 
and South Carolina met in Convention at Mont- 
gomery and began to create the Government of the 
Confederate States. 

Sane men had long foreseen that war between the 
North and the South was inevitable unless some 
plan of conciliation acceptable to both sections could 
be devised and agreed upon before the 4th of March, 
on which day Lincoln would become President, with 
a Republican Congress to sustain him in whatever 
measures he might adopt to preserve the Union. 
The scheme which had met with the most favor in the 
border slave-holding States was that these should 
hold a convention at Nashville on the 4th of Feb- 
ruary to formulate the conditions upon vvdiich they 
would themselves remain in the Union and try to 
bring the seceded States back into it ; and that these 
conditions should then be submitted to a Convention 



6o The Fight for Missouri. 

of all the States, to meet at Wheeling on the nth 
of February. 

This scheme was abandoned, however, in favor of 
a proposition made by Virginia. The General As- 
sembly of that State (January 19) invited all the 
other States to send commissioners to a convention 
which was to meet in Washington on the 4th of 
February, in order " to consider, and, if practicable, 
to agree upon some suitable adjustment " of the 
difficulties between the slave-holding and the non- 
slave-holding States, and to report the same to Con- 
gress. The Legislature at the same time sent 
ex-President Tyler to Washington, and Judge John 
Robertson to South Carolina to procure from the 
United States Government and from that of South 
Carolina a mutual agreement to abstain, pending 
the deliberations of the Convention, from the doing 
of any act which would produce a collision of 
arms. 

South Carolina readily acceded to this request of 
Virginia ; but the President, conceiving that he had 
no power to make such an agreement, submitted 
the matter to Congress. That body treated it with 
the utmost indifference. Nevertheless, all the bor- 
der slave-holding States, and most of the Northern 
States, appointed commissioners to the convention. 
Missouri sent Alexander W. Doniphan, Waldo P. 
Johnson, Harrison Hough, John D. Coalter, and A. 



TJic People. 6 1 

H. Buckner. It met at Washington on the 4th of 
February. 

The Conditional Union men of Missouri made the 
most of this convention, and of the hopes that it 
held out to those who were in favor of "peace at 
any price." 

James S. Rollins used his persuasive eloquence 
and great poj^ularity to bring the wavering to the 
side of the Union. He appealed to them in speeches 
and in letters to stand by it as long as there was 
any hope of preserving it. " There was every rea- 
son," he said, " to believe that the Peace Conven- 
tion would bring about a settlement, and even if it 
failed to do this, it would still be the duty of the 
Border States to stick together till every other hope 
of adjustment had failed." To win their confidence, 
and hold them fast, he told them again and again 
that whilst he was himself alwa}'S " in favor of the 
Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the 
Laws," he was unalterably opposed to the doctrine 
of coercion, and would to his very utmost resist the 
sending of Federal troops into any State that had 
seceded, with the purpose to force it back into the 
Union. He was the more willingly listened to be- 
cause he was known to be one of the greatest slave- 
holders in Missouri, and had always been faithful to 
her institutions. 

Listening; to the honied words of Rollins made 



62 The Fight for Missouri. 

those who heard him more willing to listen to the 
stern logic of a man of stronger intellect and more 
earnest convictions than he — William A. Hall — one 
of those honest, hard-headed, plain-speaking men 
whom New England had sent to Missouri. He told 
them in his earnest, sensible way that the question 
which they had to decide was " not one of senti- 
ment, but of sense. We hold our power," said he, " as 
a trust for others. We hold it for the benefit of our 
wives and our children ; for the protection of the 
aged, the infirm, and the helpless. We have no right 
to consult our feelings when the interests of others 
are in our keeping, and when their happiness is de- 
pendent on our action. . . . 

" What are we to gain by dissolving the Union? 
The Fugitive Slave Law is a law of the United 
States. To destroy the Union is to annul the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law, bring Canada to our borders, and 
make our slave property valueless. But this is not 
the worst of it. While sacrificing our property by 
an attempt to save it, we will bring upon ourselves 
war, which, if it come, will destroy all our property 
and expose us and our families to miseries such as, 
happily, we have never known, but of which the 
pages of history are full, . . . The geographical 
position of Missouri makes her essential to the 
North, and even if the North should consent to the 
secession of every other slave-holding State, it will 



TJie People. 63 

never consent to the secession of Missouri. She lies 
in its pathway to the' West. She commands the 
navigation of the Missouri and all its tributaries, of 
the Upper Mississippi, the Illinois, the Ohio, the 
Tennessee, and the Cumberland. . . . Never will 
the North and the North-west permit the naviga- 
tion of these great rivers to be controlled by a pow- 
erful foreign nation, for their free navigation is 
essential to the prosperity of those regions. They 
might let the mouths of the Mississippi be held by 
a weak Confederacy of Cotton States, but never by a 
powerful people of which Missouri would form 
part. 

" Our feelings and our sympathies strongly in- 
cline us to go with the South in the event of a sep- 
aration ; but passion and feeling are temporary, in- 
terest is permanent. The influence of geographical 
position will continue so long as the face of the 
Earth remains as it is, and the position of Missouri 
and the navigation of the Mississippi will be great 
and important interests long ages after the feelings 
and passions which now dominate the country shall 
have passed away and been forgotten." 

The Conditional Union men had already lowered 
their tone. They no longer threatened war against 
the United States if the Government should refuse 
to protect slavery, or even if it should dare to lead 
its armies into the secedino- States in order to co- 



64 The Fight for Missouri. 

ercc them into obedience to the laws of the Union. 
Their entreaties grew stronger every day ; their 
threats grew weaker. Many of them — most of the 
rich land owners, and of the great slave-holders — 
were fast learning the duty of submission. It is an 
old saying that " Nothing is so timid as wealth." 
The war demonstrated that of all wealth, property 
in slaves was the most timid and the most cow- 
ardly. Nor was it only the rich Union man who now 
began to cower in the horrid presence of war ; but 
many a blatant Secessionist, who owned neither 
land nor negroes, many a one who had for years 
been stirring up strife between the North and 
South, and boasting that " One southern man could 
whip half a dozen Yankees," now saw that to stand 
in the way of those " Yankees " meant danger to the 
limbs and to the life of him who should be brave 
enough to dare to do it ; and they put up their bowie- 
knives and bridled their tongues till the war was 
ended, and they could again safely loosen the one 
and brandish the other. 

The changed tone of the Conditional Union 
party, and its ever-increasing tendency toward sub- 
mission, kept within its ranks thousands of voters 
who would otherwise have gone over to the Uncon- 
ditional Union men. Blair saw this, but it did not 
disturb him, for he knew that sooner or later they 
would come to him. He went on busily organizing 



The People. 65 

and consolidating his forces, preparing systemati- 
cally, earnestly, and intelligently for war, and doing 
everything that a statesman and soldier coidd do to 
hold Missouri loyal to the Union, which he believed 
to be the source of all her prosperity. 

The Germans wxre the nucleus of his power. 
They were — every one — unconditionally for the 
Union. Knowing nothing of the peculiar relations 
of the States to the Federal Government, nothing 
of the circumstances of its formation, nothing 
about the Constitution, they could not comprehend 
that South Carolina had any more right to secede 
from the Union than St. Louis had to secede from 
Missouri. Knowing nothing of the causes \\hich 
endeared Virginia to her sons ; feeling none of that 
State pride which a New Englander or a South 
Carolinian felt ; owing his own citizenship to the 
United States and not to any State, he could not 
comprehend that to a Virginian loyalty and patriot- 
ism meant devotion to Virginia, and not to the 
Union. Hating slavery, he was anxious to destroy 
it rather than to protect it ; and having neither 
kindred nor friends in the South, he could not sym- 
pathize with its people in their unequal contest 
with the Union, nor feel that it was his duty to 
stand by them in the hour of danger. 

During the Presidential election they had been 
organized as Wide-Awakes. Blair had since been 
5 



66 The Fight for Missouri. 

converting them into semi-military companies of 
Home Guards. He now redoubled his exertions in 
this direction, drilled and disciplined the men, and 
armed them as fast as his means permitted. In ob- 
taining funds for this purpose he was greatly helped 
by Isaac Sherman of New York, and other Eastern 
men. These companies had, before the day of 
election (February i8), become so numerous and 
arrogant as to arouse the fear that they might, by 
interfering with the election, provoke a riot that 
day. Governor Jackson was appealed to by many 
prominent citizens for protection. Having no au- 
thority to call out the militia during the session of 
the General Assembly, he submitted the matter to 
that body. The Senate at once, by a vote of i8 
to 4, authorized him to call out the militia, but the 
proposition was vigorously opposed in the House 
by John D. Stevenson, the leader there of the Un- 
conditional Union men, himself a Virginian, and it 
was, despite the fervid appeals of Vest, defeated. 

The election passed off quietly. Not a single 
avowed Secessionist was chosen. In St. Louis the 
Unconditional Union candidates were elected by 
over 5,000 majority, and the State declared against 
secession by a majority of 8o,000. 

The result was a surprise to every one, and a bit- 
ter disappointment to the South. 

The immediate and all-important effect which the 



TJie People. 6"/ 

election had upon the course of affairs in Missouri, 
was the overthrow of the Secession majority in the 
House of Representatives, and the consequent de- 
feat of all measures for organizing, arming, and 
equipping the militia, and for getting the State 
ready for war. Bills having those objects in view 
had been reported to both Houses early in Febru- 
ary, and were under discussion on the day that the 
election took place. When they were taken up the 
next day, Senators and Representatives, who had 
up to that time been clamorous for arming the 
State, announced that they interpreted the late 
vote as declaring that the people of Missouri were 
overwhelmingly opposed to the enactment of any 
warlike measures, and that consequently they would 
themselves vote against these bills. 

It was in vain that the Governor and his adherents 
urged that war was inevitable, and that the first duty 
of the General Assembly to the people of the State 
was to prepare her for it ; that if they were them- 
selves willing to falsify their repeated pledge to re- 
sist the coercion of the seceding States, they should 
at least arm the State for her own defence, for the 
maintenance of peace within her own borders, and 
for the safety of her own people ; in vain it was that 
Churchill, and Parsons, and Rains in the Senate, and 
Vest, Freeman, and Claiborne in the House, taunted 
them with cowardly '' submission to a Black Repub- 



68 The Fight for Missouri. 

lican potentate;" in vain that Harris, still a Union 
man, begged them to at least discuss his carefully 
prepared bill, so as to understand its provisions and 
to see that it contained nothing for which the most 
loyal of Union men ought not to vote — nothing 
could overcome the terror that had taken posses- 
sion of their souls. ' Panic-stricken, they sought 
safety in the ranks of the Submissionists, and 
turned Missouri over, unarmed and defenceless, to 
Frank Blair and his Home Guards. 

In spite of all this, Governor Jackson maintained 
the same bold attitude which he had taken on the 
day of his inauguration, and was sustained in it by 
Parsons and a majority of the Senators, and by 
Vest and nearly one-half of the Representatives. 
They could do nothing, but they lost no opportunity 
to revive the courage of their followers, and to hold 
them in readiness for the conflict that was sure to 
begin sooner or later. 

The convention met at Jefferson City on the 28th 
of February. 

The next day (March ist) an opportunity was 
offered to the Secessionists to make a demonstra- 
tion, and they took advantage of it. The State of 
Georgia had sent a commissioner— Luther J. Glenn 
— to Missouri to ask her to secede and become one 
of the Confederate States. Arriving at JefTerson 
City on the 1st of March, he presented his creden- 



TJic People. 69 

tials to the Governor the same afternoon. The city 
was crowded with Unionibts, all of them exulting 
over their great victory at the polls and the meet- 
ing of a Convention to which not a single Secession- 
ist had been elected. Nearly every distinguished 
Union man in the State was there, either as a mem- 
ber of the Convention or to witness its delibera- 
tions, and to hold the vacillating firm in their 
loyalty to the Union. To all appearance, Missouri 
was about to commit herself irrevocably to the 
maintenance of the Union, and to assume a position 
which would eventually force her to make Vv^ar upon 
the Southern people. Had Governor Jackson now 
wavered in his devotion to the South, had he in that 
hour of great trial proved recreant to the principles 
which had always controlled his actions, that posi- 
tion would have been surely taken. But, with a 
courage as great as was ever shown upon any battle- 
field, Jackson raised aloft the banner of the State, 
and called upon the Southern men of Missouri to 
rally under its folds, fearless of the gathering forces 
of those who were rebelling against her, and careless 
of the deserters that were flocking to their camp. 

The Secessionists determined to serenade the 
Commissioner from Georgia. When he stepped 
upon the balcony to thank them for their sym- 
pathy, the Governor of the State stood beside him, 
and presented him to the people in a defiant 



70 The Fight for Missouri. 

speech, in which he reiterated that the honor and 
the interests of Missouri both required her to stand 
firmly with the Confederate States " in resistance to 
the abohtionized North," and to instantly secede and 
entei the Confederacy if Lincoln should undertake, 
as he surely would, to make war upon the South. 

The next day, Saturday, March the 2d, the Gov- 
ernor notified the General Assembly that the commis- 
sioner desired to confer with that body upon the sub- 
ject of his mission. Some opposition being made in 
the House to the adoption of a resolution which the 
Senate had passed inviting him to address both 
Houses that evening in joint session, Harris and Vest 
supported the resolution warmly. The latter said : 

" I stand here to-day, come weal, come woe, sink 
or swim, survive or perish, to cast my political for- 
tunes for all time, to give all that I have, and all that 
I am, to that people which is mine by lineage, by 
birth, and by institutions — the people of the South; 
and should the time come for battle, for storm, or 
for wreck, I will be with that Southern people. 
Coerce them back? Representatives of Missouri! 
let me tell you now, sneer at them as you may ! let 
me tell you now, that the God who protected our 
forefathers, will protect that Southern people. 

" Thrice have we to Clan Alpine come in friendship's guise, 
When next \vc come 'twill be with banner, brand and bow, 
As clansman meets his mortal foe." 



TJic People. 71 

" Sirs ! we have appealed to the North, begged it, 
and besought it. We might as well have prayed to 
the winds. You talk of peace. There is no peace. 
The Republican party must cease its eternal and 
everlasting warfare upon our property, or in the red 
glare of battle, and in the shock of contending 
armies, we will appeal to the God of Battles, and 
ask Him to protect us. 

" I say here to-day in face of a dominant majority 
of 80,000 Submissionists, I say to you and I say to 
these Submissionists, that if they intend to justify 
the coercion of the seceded States, I shall myself 
be in favor of the instant separation of Missouri 
from the North, and will stake my life on the result. 

"We, who live on the broad prairies of Missouri, 
with but few slaves around us, cannot appreciate the 
dangers that environ the men of the South, their 
wives and their children ; the horrors of a servile 
insurrection ; their fear, and their hatred of a party 
Avhich has elected to power a man who declares 
that slavery must be confined to the slave States, 
so that it may, like a scorpion, sting itself to death. 
How? In the blood and carnage of African lust 
and African rage. And yet we are told that these 
people must stand still and allow all these terrors to 
be brought upon them ! . . . I would rather — 
a hundred times rather — settle this question now, 
upon the battle-field. If I were a citizen of one of 



72 The Fight for Missouri. 

those Southern States, I would do as they have 
done, and as a Missourian, I am willing and ready 
to follow Old Virginia, wherever she may lead, and 
no one can doubt that she will go with the South." 

The resolution was adopted, and that evening the 
Commissioner for Georgia addressed the General 
Assembly, explaining the causes which had im- 
pelled Georgia to secede, and urging Missouri to 
unite with her and the other slave-holding States in 
the formation of a Southern Confederacy. 

While matters were thus drifting towards civil 
strife in Missouri, the only State in which the con- 
test did, during the first year or two, or at any time, 
assume that character, the North and the South 
were both getting ready for war. 

Jefferson Davis had been inaugurated President 
of the Confederate States on the i8th of February ; 
measures to organize an army were adopted on the 
28th of February, and provision was made for the 
transfer to the Confederate Government of the 
troops that had been raised by the several States, 
for their own defence. South Carolina had already 
occupied all the forts in Charleston Harbor, except 
Sumter, and was erecting powerful batteries to 
command and reduce that fortress when the time 
should come, and was enlisting, organizing and drill- 
ing men in every county and in every neighborhood. 
General McCuUoch had, with an overwhelming 



The People. 73 

force, surrounded the United States troops at San 
Antonio, and by authority of the State of Texas 
compelled General Twiggs, the commander of the 
United States forces in that department, to sur- 
render to the State all the United States property 
within her limits, and to agree to withdraw every 
Federal soldier from her territory. Georgia had 
called her militia into active service under the com- 
mand of those veterans, Twiggs, Hardee and 
Walker. Bragg and Beauregard were mustering 
an army in Louisiana, and the streets of New Or- 
leans were crowded with enthusiastic volunteers. 
Van Dorn had succeeded Jefferson Davis in com- 
mand of the army that Mississippi was raising, and 
its ranks were rapidly swelling. Florida had been 
in arms since the beginning of the year, and was 
still strengthening her forces in all directions, while 
throughout Alabama there was not a Federal 
soldier, and everywhere the enlistment of volunteers 
was hurrying. Even Arkansas had risen in over- 
whelming force, and driving Captain Totten and 
his command out of the State, had taken posses- 
sion of the United States Arsenal at Little Rock. 
The Northern States were no less active. Massa- 
chusetts had already tendered to the President 
twenty-six regiments for the defence of the capi- 
tal, and nearly every other loyal State was emu- 
lating her example. Even Congress had begun to 



74 The Fight for Missouri. 

discuss the employment of force in order to compel 
the seceding States to restore the property which 
they had captured and to obey the laws of the 
United States. 

And most important of all, the whole power of 
the Government of the United States, its army 
and navy, together with its treasury and all its 
great resources, had passed out of the unwilling 
hands of Buchanan, into the firm grasp of Abraham 
Lincoln ; out of the control of the South and its 
Northern friends into that of the anti-slavery North, 
and was thenceforth to be wielded for the preser- 
vation of the Union and the enforcement of its laws 
and the conquest of all its enemies. 

Encouraged by the brave attitude of Jackson, 
and incited by the preparations for war that were 
making all around them, the Southern Rights' 
members of the Missouri Legislature made a su- 
preme effort to pass the bill for arming the State. 
It was taken up on the 5th of March. 

L. M. Lawson, of Platte, the youngest member of 
the House, and a native of the State, spoke against 
the bill. It was unnecessary, he said, because no 
one was proposing to attack Missouri, or to assail 
her honor, or to do any injury to the persons or 
property of her people ; it was oppressive, because 
it would burden the State with enormous taxation 



The People. 75 

at a time when the troubled condition of the coun- 
try and the fear of war was bankrupting every one ; 
it was dangerous, because it would place in the 
hands of the Governor the power and the means to 
involve the State in war and to bring upon her in- 
habitants the unspeakable horrors of fratricidal strife. 
Missouri had no cause to secede from the Union, no 
ground upon which to arm herself against the Fed- 
eral Government ; no reason to apprehend war un- 
less she should, by her own folly, bring it upon her- 
self and her people. Let her be loyal to the Union, 
and the Union would still protect her, as it had al- 
ways done, 

Conrow, replying to Lawson, said that Lincoln's 
inaugural had removed from his mind the last hope 
for the safety of the Union. If he carried out his 
threat to coerce the South into obedience to the 
laws of the Federal Government, the country would 
soon blaze with the flames of civil war. Missouri 
would not submit to Lincoln's domination. If she 
did, he would never again call himself a Missou- 
rian. 

N. C. Claiborne said: '' The gentleman from Platte 
(Lawson) thinks that we are appealing to the fears 
of members. There are times when the brave fear. 
The universal gloom, which hangs like mourning 
drapery around our once happy country, deepened 
by Lincoln's inaugural, which plainly sets forth the 



76 The Fight for Missouri. 

plan of coercion, will cause every patriot heart to 
quail with fear. His determination to hold, occupy, 
and possess the Southern forts strangles the hopes 
of all those who have prayed for the preservation 
and reconstruction of the Union. He means war. 
Long before the echo of the first cannon fired by 
his minions against a Southern city shall have died 
away, those who have been seeking to compromise 
our difficulties on just and honorable terms, will 
have buckled on their armor and planted themselves 
upon the ramparts of the Constitution, in defence 
of Southern rights. ... It has been said that 
Missouri will submit, that her Convention will sub- 
mit. He v/ho says so slanders the members of that 
Convention, and outrages the people of Missouri. 
Tell me not that this State v/ill tolerate the odious 
doctrine of coercion. Never, NEVER will she toler- 
ate it. Seventeen thousand Republicans, nine- 
tenths of them foreigners living in the city of St. 
Louis, cannot warp the judgment of 150,000 free- 
men and control the destinies of this State. The 
thing is absurd. Missouri v/ill share the destinies 
of the South. For my own part, I will never aban- 
don the home of my adoption, I will remain upon 
the western border of Missouri, and will battle there 
for her honor and her rights." 

Harris again urged the House to pass the bill. It 
was no longer a question of policy, but of duty, and 



TJie People. 77 

a necessity to put the State in condition to protect 
her people and their possessions ; and to secure to 
her that influence among the other States to which 
she was entitled by reason of her greatness and her 
position, so that she might use this influence to 
stay the hand of violence and war, and to preserve 
the peace and maintain the Union. ''If she failed 
to do this, humiliating disaster and dire ruin would 
come upon her, and she ought therefore to set 
about it at once." His anxiety was not inspired, 
he said, " by sympathy v/ith the seceded States. 
They had withdrawn from the Union without ade- 
quate preparation to maintain their independence, 
and in doing this had shown more temper than 
statesmanship. What he desired was not so much 
to defend tJieiii against the consequences of their 
own rashness and folly as to maintain the dignity 
of Missouri, and to protect the persons and prop- 
erty of her citizens." 

The House refused to pass the bill. In this the 
South sustained a defeat more disastrous to its 
independence than any which thereafter befell its 
arms, down to the fall of Vicksburg. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CONVENTION. 

The State Convention — Gamble's Report and Resolutions — Amend- 
ments Proposed — Debates — William A. Hall — John B. Hender- 
son — Prince L. Hudgins — John T. Redd — James O. Broadhead — 
Adoption of the Report and Resolutions — The General Assembly 
— Election of a United States Senator — Defeat of James S. Green 
— Blaine's Opinion of Him — The Metropolitan Police Bill — Vest's 
Adverse Report on the Action of the Convention — His Speech — 
The I^egislature Rejects the Recommendations of the Convention 
and Adjourns — The Revival of Secessionism — Defeat of the Co- 
ercionists in St. Louis — Election of a Conservative Mayor. 

The State Convention met at Jefferson City on 
the last day of February. Ex-Governor Sterling 
Price, a Union man, was chosen President, receiving 
the votes of seventy-five Union men, while the votes 
of fifteen Southern Rights' men were given to 
Nathaniel W. Watkins, a half-brother of Henry 
Clay. As soon as the Convention completed its 
organization it adjourned its session to St. Louis, 
whose loyal atmosphere it preferred to that of the 
capital. 

Of its ninety-nine members fifty-three were na- 
tives of either Virginia or Kentucky ; and all but 
seventeen had been born in the slave-holding States. 



TJie Convention. yg 

Only thirteen were natives of the North. Three 
were Germans, and there was one Irishman. The 
President of the Convention, the Chairman of the 
Committee on Federal Relations Judge Gamble, the 
leader of the Unconditional Union men on the floor 
James O. Broadhead, and the most conspicuous op- 
ponent of Secession John B. Henderson, were all 
Virginians. 

The Convention reassembled at St. Louis on the 
4th of March, the day of Lincoln's inauguration, 
and went straight to work. On the 9th the Com- 
mittee on Federal Relations made a long report 
through its chairman. Judge Gamble. Li this re- 
port, after reviewing the condition of the country, 
they said : 

" To involve Missouri in revolution, under the 
present circumstances, is certainly not demanded by 
the magnitude of the grievances of which we com- 
plain ; nor by the certainty that they cannot be 
otherwise and more peacefully remedied, nor by the 
hope that they would be remedied, or even dimin- 
ished by such revolution. 

"The position of Missouri in relation to the ad- 
jacent States, which would continue in the Union, 
would necessarily expose her, if she became a mem- 
ber of a new Confederacy, to utter destruction 
whenever any rupture might take place between 
the different republics. In a military aspect seces- 



8o The Fight for Missouri. 

sion and connection with a Southern Confederacy 
is annihilation for Missouri. 

"The true position for Missouri to assume is that 
of a State whose interests are bound up in the main- 
tenance of the Union, and whose kind feeHngs and 
strong sympathies are with the people of the 
Southern States, with whom we arc connected by 
the ties of friendship and blood. . . . To go 
with those States — to leave the government our 
fathers builded — to blot out the star of Missouri 
from the constellation of the Union is to ruin our- 
selves without doing them any good. We cannot 
follow them, we cannot give up the Union, but we 
will do all in our power to induce them to again take 
their places with us in the family from which they 
have attempted to separate themselves. For this 
purpose we will not only recommend a compromise 
with which they ought to be satisfied, but we will 
endeavor to procure an assemblage of the whole 
family of States in order that in a General Conven- 
tion such amendments to the Constitution may be 
agreed upon as shall permanently restore harmony 
to the whole nation." 

The committee also submitted to the Conven- 
tion resolutions conformable to these opinions, and 
which in substance were, 

I. That there was no adequate cause for the with- 
drawal of Missouri from the Union. 



TJie Coiiveiitioji. 8i 

2. That believing that the seceded States would 
return to the Union if the Crittenden Proposition 
were adopted, the Convention would request the 
General Assembly to call a Convention of all the 
States to consider that proposition. 

3. That they would entreat the Federal Gov- 
ernment not to employ force against the seceding 
States, and the latter not to assail the Government, 
while this proposition v.-as under consideration. 

Mr. Bast moved that the Convention should 
further declare that if the Northern States should 
refuse to assent to the Crittenden Compromise, and 
the other border slave States should thereupon se- 
cede, Missouri would not then hesitate to take a firm 
and decided stand in favor of her sister States of the 
South. 

For this proposition only twenty-three members 
voted. Among them were Sterling Price, Robert 
A. Hatcher, Harrison Hough, Prince L. Hudgins, 
John T. Redd, and Nathaniel W. Watkins. Among 
the seventy who voted against it were General 
Doniphan, Judge Gamble, James H. Moss, William 
A. Hall, John B. Henderson, and James O. Broad- 
head. 

While Mr. Moss, who was, by the way, a man of 

ability and character, would not vote to declare that 

Missouri would, under any circumstances, secede, he 

was opposed to coercion, and therefore offered a 

6 



82 The Fight for Missouri. 

resolution declaring that Missouri would ''never 
furnish men or money for the purpose of aiding the 
General Government in any attempts to coerce a 
seceding State." 

In advocating this resolution he said : 
" I submit to every man of common sense in this 
Assembly to tell me whether Missouri will ever fur- 
nish a regiment to invade a Southern State for the 
purpose of coercion. Never ! Never ! And, gentle- 
men ! Missouri expects this Convention to say so. 
. . . I believe it to be the duty of Missouri to 
stand by the gallant men of southern Illinois, who 
have declared that they will never suffer a Northern 
army to pass the southern boundary of Illinois for 
the purpose of invading a Southern State." 

To this William A. Hall replied with unanswer- 
able argument that if Missouri remained in the 
Union it would be her duty to furnish both men and 
money to the General Government when properly 
called upon for them, whether to coerce a State into 
submission, or for any other purpose. To say that 
she would not do this, would be an idle threat at 
best, and a mischievous one. Threats on the part 
of Northern men or communities might have a good 
effect by showing the willingness of some men at the 
North to be just to the South. But such threats 
coming from a Southern State would only encour- 
age the seceding States and enrage the North. 



TJie Convention. 83 

The Convention voted down the proposition of 
Mr. Moss ; and " the pitiless logic of facts " forced 
him afterwards to raise and command a regiment 
for the subjugation of the South ! 

While acting consistently with their new-born de- 
termination to stand by the Union, the Conditional 
Union men still talked as they had been wont to 
talk when they were soliciting the votes of the 
Southern people of Missouri. Even John B. Hen- 
derson, daring and reckless as he had become in his 
newly awakened zeal and loyalty, opposed Moss's 
resolution only because it was useless. 

" Does any man suppose," said he, " that the 
President of the United States will so far disre- 
gard his duties under the Constitution, or forget 
the obligation of his oath, as to undertake the subju- 
gation of the Southern States by force ? Will the 
abstract principle of the enforcement of the laws 
ever be carried by the President to the extent of 
military subjugation? If so, this Government is at 
an end. Will you tell me that Mr. Lincoln will send 
Don Quixotes into the Southern States with military 
force to subjugate those States? Certainly not. 
. . . He who dreams that this Government was 
made or intended to subjugate any one of the States 
dreams certainly against the spirit, against the in- 
tent, and against the whole scope of our institutions. 
. . . The President has no more power^to use 



84 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

force than you or I. Why, then, should Missouri 
declare that she will under no circumstances lend 
means or money to the enforcement of the laws by 
the Federal Government ? " 

There were a few who still dared to speak as 
Southern men in a Missouri Convention, and to ex- 
press in the presence of Blair's Home Guards and of 
United States troops and in the centre of the loyal 
city of St. Louis, the opinions which they had ex- 
pressed during the canvass to their Southern-born 
constituents. Among these were Prince L. Hudgins 
and John T. Redd. The former, in the course of an 
able and impassioned argument in support of Moss' 
proposition, said : 

" I do not believe that a State has a constitutional 
right to secede ; but seven States claim to have se- 
ceded, and I, for one, am anxious to bring them 
back. You cannot do this by threats, nor by force, 
nor by abuse. They have done what they thought 
best for themselves, for their children, and for their 
children's children. They have done it deliberately 
and after great consideration. ... If Missouri 
wishes to bring them back, she must remember that 
they are our brethren ; that they must be treated 
not as traitors, but as patriots; and that they can 
only be brought back upon fair and honorable 
terms. . . . The Federal Government has no 
right to force them back; and if it had such a 



The Convention. 85 

right, this Convention should say that it ought not 
to be, and in the language of Virginia and Ken- 
tucky, must not be, used. It has been settled be- 
yond the power of refutation that the Government 
has no right to march an armed force into a State in 
order to subjugate it. If this be so, cannot Mis- 
souri have the courage to say that, if Abraham 
Lincoln, in violation of the Constitution, and in 
violation of his oath, march an army into the South, 
she will not aid him with men and money ? 

" It is strange that any man who lives in Missouri, 
and believes in her institutions, should hesitate to 
declare that she will not engage in such a war. It 
would be a dreadful thing to do, even if the Con- 
stitution, and the flag of our country, and our 
own honor required us to do it — to make war 
upon the land in which we were born, and whose 
churchyards are filled with the graves of our an- 
cestors ; to desolate the homes and to shed the 
blood of our kindred. It is too horrible to con- 
template. Missouri never will do it. . . . 

" Nor can I believe for one moment that Mis- 
souri intends, or that this Convention will say that 
is her duty, to submit to Northern aggression, to 
give up her institutions, and to sacrifice her honor. 
Let our slaves go if they must, let all our property 
be sacrificed, but let us maintain our honor — the 
honor of freemen. If ever the President command 



86 The Fig] it for Missouri. 

Missourians to shed the blood of their Southern 
brothers, they should take the halter in one hand 
and the sword in the other and tell him that 
when he had taken the one he might use the 
other. I have no submission blood in my veins. 
If I had I would let it out with a knife." 

John T, Redd, of Marion, was even more em- 
phatic than Hudgins. They were both men of 
ability, and of high standing, and their words had 
weight with the people of Missouri. It is a pity 
to offer the reader only a dry summary of their 
speeches. They ought to be read in full by every 
one who wishes to comprehend the motives which 
governed the conduct of the men who took up 
arms against the Federal Government. 

" If the General Government send troops upon 
Southern soil to retake the forts now in the hands 
of those States, to retake the custom-houses for 
the purpose of collecting the revenue, or for any 
other purpose, the Union is gone. If it be once 
dissolved it can never be reconstructed, because be- 
tween the sundered sections there will be a gulf of 
blood. 

" It is my opinion that if the General Government 
will not w^it till the country can, by conciliation and 
compromise, save the Union, Missouri should and 
will tckc the stand with her Southern sisters ; and 



The Convention. 87 

that, having failed to obtain their rights, having 
failed to obtain any guarantee from that great anti- 
slavery party which has so long trampled the Con- 
stitution under foot, she and they should take their 
stand outside of the Union, taking with them the 
Constitution, and that glorious banner which they 
have baptized in the blood of a hundred battle- 
fields, and fight, if need be, for their rights and insti- 
tutions, as their fathers fought, and until the last drop 
of blood be spilled. ... If she is to remain in 
the Union at the sacrifice of her institutions and her 
rights, she should change the device of her coat-of- 
arms, remove from it the grizzly bears, whose rug- 
ged nature was never animated by a craven spirit, 
and substitute in their place a fawning spaniel, cowing 
at the feet of its master, and licking the hand that 
smites it. 

Even Broadhead, an Unconditional Union mem- 
ber from St. Louis, did not believe that the Federal 
Government had a right to coerce a State; but he 
found in the power which it had to call out the 
militia in order to execute the laws, to suppress in- 
surrection, and to repel invasion, abundant authority 
to use force for the preservation of the Union. 

Argument and declamation had, however, little 
to do with the settlement of the question, and with 
determining the action of the Convention. It was 
2l fact which decided the matter ^.nA persuaded 'didX 



88 The Fight for Missouri. 

body to declare that Missouri would adhere loyally 
to the Union. TJiis fact was bluntly announced 
to the Convention and to the people of the State 
by Broadhead, who was not only a delegate to the 
Convention but a member of the Union Safety 
Committee of St. Louis and a trusted counsellor of 
Mr. Lincoln, at the conclusion of his speech, in 
these words : " Missouri cannot go out of the 
Union if she would. I think I know what I say 
when I speak it, Missouri has not tJie poiver to go out 
of the Union if she would!' What he meant will 
appear in the sequel. He did know what he was 
saying. 

The Convention adopted Gamble's report and 
resolutions, and a few days afterwards (March 21) 
adjourned subject to the call of a committee, which 
it named. 

Early in the session, the General Assembly 
had refused to elect a United States Senator in 
place of James S. Green, whose term was to ex- 
pire on the 3d of March. It had done this upon 
the ground that it was better to learn first whether 
Missouri would remain in the Union or not. It 
being now obvious that the State would not secede, 
the General Assembly proceeded to the election 
of a Senator (March 12th). The Democrats nom- 
inated Green for the place, but found it impossible, 
after several days' balloting, to elect so pronounced 



TJcc Convention. 89 

a Secessionist as he. Waldo P. Johnson was there- 
upon elected. It is a noteworthy fact that Green, 
who was relegated to private life because he was a 
Secessionist, did not raise his hand or his voice in 
behalf of the South during the war, while Johnson, 
who had been elected because he was a good Union 
man, quickly resigned his seat in the Senate, en- 
tered the army, and fought for the Confederacy till 
the end of the war. 

Of Green, Mr. Blaine, who rarely permits himself 
to write justly or fairly about any Southern man 
says: "No man among his contemporaries had 
made so profound an impression in so short a time. 
He was a very strong debater. He had peers, but no 
master, in the Senate. Mr. Green on the one side, 
and Mr. Fessenden on the other, were the Senators 
whom Douglas most disliked to meet, and who were 
best fitted in readiness, in accuracy, and in logic to 
meet him. Douglas rarely had a debate with either 
in which he did not lose his temper, and to lose one's 
temper in debate is generally to lose one's cause. 
( Green had done more than any other man in Mis- 
1 souri to break down the power of Thomas H. Bcn- 
Vton as a leader of the Democracy. His arraignment 
of Benton before the people of Missouri in 1849, 
when he was but thirty-two years of age, was one of 
the most aggressive and most successful warfares in 
our political annals." 



90 The Fight for Missouri. 

After serving several years in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, he had been elected to the United 
States Senate in January 1859, and became the 
leader of the pro-slavery men in the Congressional 
contest for the possession of Kansas. He bore 
himself there with so much dignity and courtesy, 
and was so able in argument and brilliant in debate, 
that he won the admiration of every one and de- 
served even higher praise than that which Mr. 
Blaine accords to him. 

Although the Secessionists had, through defec- 
tion of some of their number, lost control of the 
House of Representatives, and could not conse- 
quently enact any measure looking toward the se- 
cession of the State, they could, nevertheless, bring 
to their support a majority of the House, whenever 
they attacked the Republican party and not the 
Union; for many men who were devoted to the 
Union were bitterly hostile to the Republicans, and 
especially hostile to that party as it was constituted 
in St. Louis. In that city, it consisted almost 
wholly of Germans, though their leaders were chiefly 
Kentuckians and Virginians. They were in posses- 
sion of the City Government, and their Mayor was 
a stern and uncompromising partisan, a member 
of the Union Safety Committee, and a man who 
would not hesitate to use the police force and all 
the power and resources of the city to repress any 



The Co)ivcntion. 



91 



movements on the part of the Secessionists. He 
was sustained also by the powerful semi-military or- 
ganization of Home Guards, and could, in the mo- 
ment of need, call them to his aid as special consta- 
bles and, by investing them with the panoply of the 
law, thrice arm them for the fight. These compa- 
nies, as has already been told, had, previous to the 
election of the i8th of February, become so turbulent 
and aggressive as to alarm the peaceful residents of 
the city, and recent events had made them more ar- 
rogant and more dangerous still. It had therefore be- 
come a matter of supreme importance to the Seces- 
sionists to take these great powers from the Mayor, 
and accordingly a law was now enacted for creating 
a Board of Police Commissioners and authorizing a 
police force for the city of St. Louis. This bill, which 
passed the Senate on the 2d of March, and the House 
on the 23d, authorized the Governor, with the con- 
sent of the Senate, to appoint four commissioners, 
who, along with the Mayor of the city, should have 
absolute control of the police, of the Volunteer Mili- 
tia of St. Louis, and of the sheriff and all other con- 
servators of the peace. This act summarily took 
away from the Republican Mayor and transferred 
to the Governor through his appointees, the whole 
police power of the city of St. Louis. This v/as its 
expressed intention. It had other and more impor- 
tant purposes which were carefully concealed. 



92 The Fight for Missouri. 

On the 22d of March, the President of the Con- 
vention transmitted to the General Assembly the 
resolution requesting that body to take the proper 
steps for calling a Convention of all the States to 
propose amendments to the Constitution. 

Mr. Vest reported (March 27th) from the com- 
mittee to whom the resolution was referred, that 
" Going into council with our oppressors before we 
have agreed among ourselves, can never result in 
good. It is not the North that has been wronged, 
but the South, and the South can alone determine 
what securities in the future will be sufificient. The 
interests of Missouri, all her sympathies and the af- 
fections of her people render her destiny the same 
with that of the Border Slave States. Mediation 
by one State alone will amount to nothing. Let us 
first agree with those whom God and Nature have 
made our associates in council, and then, in a tem- 
perate but firm manner, make known our united de- 
cision to the people of the North. If such a de- 
mand, coming from the people of eight sister States, 
swelling in a tone of grandeur and power which 
should sway the destinies of the universe, shall 
be disregarded, then, indeed, all hopes of reconstruc- 
tion would be ended, and appealing to the civilized 
world a united South, with common lineage, com- 
mon feelings and common institutions, would take 
their place among the nations of the earth. With 



TJic Convention. 03 

these opinions the committee beg leave to repoi-t 
that it is inexpedient for the General Assembly to 
take any step towards calling a National Conven- 
tion." 

In the course of the debate upon this report, Vest 
said: "The Convention has been guilty of falsehood 
and deceit. It says that there is no cause for sep- 
aration. If this be so, why call a Convention ? In 
declaring that if the other Border Slave States se- 
ceded Missouri would still remain within the Union, 
these wiseacres have perpetrated a libel upon Mis- 
souri. So help me God ! if the day ever comes 
when Missouri shall prove so recreant to herself, so 
recreant to the memories of the past and to the 
hopes of the future, as to submit tamely to these 
Northern Philistines, I will take up my household 
gods and leave the State. Make another Constitu- 
tion and these Northern Vandals will trample it 
under foot. ... I appeal to the people of Mis- 
souri to maintain their rights. I defy the Conven- 
tion. They are political cheats, jugglers, and char- 
latans, who foisted themselves upon the people by 
ditties and music and striped flags. They do not 
represent Missouri. They have crooked the pliant 
hinges of the knee that thrift might follow fawning. 
As for myself, two grandfathers who fought for our 
liberties rest in the soil of Virginia, and two uncles 
who fought in the Revolution, sleep in the land of 



94 The Fight for Misso2iri. 

the Dark and Bloody Ground. With such blood in 
my veins, I will never, never, NEVER submit to 
Northern rule and dictation, I will risk all to be with 
the Southern people, and, if defeated, I can with a 
patriot of old exclaim, 

' More true joy an exile feels, 
Than Caesar with a Senate at his heels.'" 

The Legislature, having adopted the report, ad- 
journed the next day, March the 28th. 

The Secessionists now began to gather strength 
again. The Governor had never wavered in his de- 
termination to hold the State firm to her pledge to 
resist the coercion of the South. And now many of 
those who had in January and February and in the 
early days of March been deluded into the belief 
that it was still possible to prevent war had at last 
come to the conclusion that war was inevitable, that 
a collision would sooner or later take place between 
the Federal Government and the South, and that 
Missouri would have to take part in the conflict ; 
and they were now taking sides with the Governor. 
In St. Louis, particularly, a strong revulsion of feel- 
ing had set in against Blair and his followers. 
Their open preparation for war alarmed the great 
land owners and rich merchants of St. Louis, who 
preferred peace to everything else, and it fright- 
ened thousands of others whose prosperity de- 



The Convc7ition. 95 

pended on the continuance of Southern trade, 
which would be instantly stopped by war. It was 
plain now that the South was for peace, and the 
North for war, > The Secessionists had thus be- 
come the party of peace, and they were joined by 
every man who wanted that above all things. It 
was useless for Mr. Lincoln to say that he was 
averse to war. All men knew that, but they also 
knew that it was only by war that he could main- 
tain the Union. The common sense of the people 
recognized this fact, and that they acted upon it 
was abundantly proven when the Municipal Elec- 
tion took place in St. Louis on the 1st of April, 
and the Unconditional Union men, who had carried 
the city in February by a majority of 5,000, were 
defeated by a majority of 2,600. 

This was a declaration in favor, not of secession, but 
of peace, and against making war upon the South; 
and there were still men — thousands of men — in St. 
Louis, and throughout Missouri — who continued to 
believe that war might yet be averted ; and there 
were others who foolishly fancied that, even if war 
raged from the Lakes to the Gulf and from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, Missouri could, in the midst 
of the bloody strife, remain neutral and enjoy un- 
broken peace. 

There were, however, two classes of men in Mis- 
souri who had never indulged in these baseless 



96 TJtc Fight for Missouri. 

hopes; who had seen at the outset that war was 
inevitable, and had then begun to prepare for war. 
At the head of the one stood the Governor of the 
State, Claiborne F. Jackson ; at the head of the 
other Francis P. Blair, Jr. Never did either of them 
quail in the presence of any danger, nor shrink from 
the performance of any duty, however difficult or 
perilous, which he was called upon to encounter, or 
to undertake, in defense, or in maintenance, of the 
principles to which he had devoted his life. Under 
the banner -of the State upheld by the one or 
under the flag of the Union uplifted by the other, 
all earnest men had at last begun to rally. What 
these men did is what must now be told. 



II. MILITARY. 



CHAPTER V. 

FRANK BLAIR REBELS AGAINST THE STATE. 

The Department of the West — General William S. Harney — The St. 
Louis Arsenal — Major William H. Bell — Isaac H. Sturgeon — 
Federal Troops brought to St. Louis — Frank Blair organizes Re- 
bellion against the State — The Home Guards — The Minute Men 
— Basil W. Duke — Frost's Brigade — Daniel M. Frost — His Nego- 
tiations with Major Bell — General Scott removes Bell— Major 
Hagner in Command. 

At the beginning of 1861 that part of the United 
States west of the Mississippi was divided into five 
MiHtary Departments — TJie West, Texas, New Mex- 
ico, Utah, and The Pacific. 

The most important of these, The Department of 
the West, embraced all the country lying between 
the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, 
except Texas, New Mexico, and Utah. It was 
under the command of Brigadier-General William 
S. Harney, and its head-quarters were at St. Louis. 

Harney was an ofificer of large experience and 
great gallantry. Appointed to the army from civil 
life in 181S, he had done hard and conspicuous ser- 
vice in the Florida War, and had fought under Scott 
in Mexico, and won distinction on many fields ; had 
been brevettcd bricjadier-gencral for his conduct at 



lOO TJie Fight for Missouri. 

Cerro Gordo, and had been promoted to that full 
rank in 1858. Though more than sixty years old 
he was still in the vigor of his robust manhood, 
very tall, broad-shouldered, and as straight as an 
arrow, and his bronzed features were flushed with 
the glow of an exuberant vitality. He had mar- 
ried long before in St. Louis, and was living there 
in luxury; for he was a man of wealth, fond of so- 
ciety and addicted to its pleasures. Possessed of no 
great intellect, he had, nevertheless, what often sup- 
plies its place among soldiers, energy, courage, and a 
high sense of honor. He was, moreover, devoted to 
the service, adventurous and fearless — was, in fact, 
an ideal dragoon. Though a Louisianian by birth, 
and himself a slave holder, though his family and 
intimates were Southern people and slave holders, 
and 'though he himself sympathized vv'ith the South 
in its struggle against the North, he loved the 
Union, and knew no other country, and was abso- 
lutely loyal to the flag under which he had served 
so many years and so gallantly. 

In the southern part of the city, on the shore of 
the Mississippi, was the St. Louis Arsenal. It con- 
tained about sixty thousand stand of arms and a 
large supply of other munitions of war, and the 
workshops were extensive and well equipped. In 
addition to the artisans employed in these shops 
there were at the post several ordnance officers 



Frank Blair Rebels Against the State. loi 

and a few men detailed from the troops at Jef- 
ferson Barracks. These barracks were ten miles 
farther down the river, and were occupied by a 
small force, mostly recruits, commanded by Major 
Macrae. 

The commandant of the arsenal was Major Wil- 
liam H. Bell, a North Carolinian. On graduating 
at West Point in 1820, he had been assigned to 
ordnance duty, and had ever since belonged to 
that branch of the service. St. Louis was virtu- 
ally his home; for, in the course of his long service 
in the army, he had been stationed there many 
years, and by prudent investments had amassed a 
considerable fortune in town lots and suburban 
property; and there, too, he had formed the chief 
friendships of his life. He was a capable officer, 
and bore a high character both in the army and 
among his friends in civil life. 

The seizure by the seceding States of the Fed- 
eral forts and other public property within their 
limits during the last days of December, and in the 
early days of January, had naturally turned the 
thoughts of every man in Missouri to this arsenal, 
whose great stores of arms and ammunition were of 
incalculable value at that juncture. There was also 
gold to the amount of $400,000 in the vaults of the 
Assistant Treasurer at St. Louis. That official, 
Isaac H. Sturgeon, a Kentuckian, had lived many 



I02 TJlc Fig] it for Missouri. 

years in St. Louis, and was well known there as an 
active, shrewd, and cunning politician, of no mean 
ability. He had always been identified with the 
Southern Rights wing of the Missouri Democracy; 
had resisted the mild free-soilism of Colonel Benton ; 
had vigorously opposed the squatter sovereignty 
theories of Stephen A. Douglas ; was a follower of 
President Buchanan, who had appointed him to 
office ; and had earnestly supported Breckinridge 
during the late canvass. He generally consorted 
with Southerners, and was believed by the semi-se- 
cessionists of the city and State to be one of them- 
selves. From them he learned what were the 
plans, or rather the talk, of the more reckless mem- 
bers of that party, and fancied that an attack was 
about to be made by them not only upon the ar- 
senal, but upon the Government funds in his own 
custody. 

He accordingly wrote on the 5th of January a 
guarded letter to the President (of whose senti- 
ments he was not quite sure), and in it said that he 
was greatly concerned for the safety, not only of 
the public funds in his own hands, but of the muni- 
tions of war at the arsenal, as it was plain that 
" boiJi parties had their eyes fixed upon those two 
points;" and that he would, therefore, "venture to 
suggest " to the President the propriety of concen- 
trating troops at the arsenal, for the protection of 



Frank Blair Rebels Against the State. 103 

the property there, and of the " treasure " in his 
own custody. 

This letter having been referred by the President 
to General Scott, the latter forthwith sent Lieuten- 
ant Robinson with a detachment of forty men, from 
Newport Barracks to St. Louis, " to be placed by 
the department commander at the disposal of the 
Assistant Treasurer." This detachment reached 
St. Louis on the morning of the nth of January, 
and was quartered in the Government Building, 
wherein were the custom house, the post office, 
the Federal courts and the Assistant Treasury. 

This absurd display of force by the Government 
provoked the intensest excitement throughout the 
city. Extras were issued by the papers; great 
crowds began to gather around the post ofifice ; 
and an outbreak would have followed, had not 
General Harney wisely ordered the troops to the 
arsenal, and thereby quieted the people. No one 
seemed to be able to explain the coming of these 
Federal soldiers. The Assistant Treasurer kept 
himself prudently out of view. 

As soon as the fact had been telegraphed to Jef- 
ferson City, the Governor called the attention of 
the General Assembly to it, and Senator Parsons 
oiTered these resolutions : 

'■'Resolved, That we view this act of the adminis- 
tration as insulting to the dignity and patriotism 



104 ^^^^ ^^S^^^ f^^ Missouri. 

of this State, and calculated to arouse suspicion and 
distrust on the part of her people towards the Fed- 
eral Government. 

" Resolved, That the Governor be requested to in- 
quire of the President what has induced him to 
place the property of the United States within this 
State in charge of an armed Federal force." 

The removal of the troops from the post office to 
the arsenal caused the General Assembly to drop 
the matter. But the incident had important conse- 
quences nevertheless, the very reverse, however, of 
what had been intended by Mr. Sturgeon ; for it set 
both Union men and Secessionists to making seri- 
ous and diligent preparation to get possession of 
the arms in the arsenal. 

It was now that Blair first began to convert the 
Wide-Awakes into Home Guards, and to drill, dis- 
cipline, and arm them. He saw that the time for 
action had come. The State Government had, 
with the new year, passed into the hands of a 
Governor, who was an avowed sympathizer with the 
seceding States, and was pledged to resist all at- 
tempts of the Federal Government to enforce its 
laws within those States, and he was supported by a 
General Assembly, one House of which was almost 
unanimously, and the other very decidedly, in 
accord with him. A law had already passed the 
Senate, and was pending in the House, to take 



Frank Blair Rebels Against the State. 105 

away from the Republican Mayor of St. Louis all 
authority over the Volunteer Militia of that city, 
and to confer that power upon the Governor in- 
stead ; and Blair knew that the object of this law 
was not only to deprive the Mayor of the means 
with which to help the Federal Government, in 
case of disturbances in St. Louis, but also to range 
the military companies of the city on the side of 
the Secessionists, if the latter should undertake to 
seize the arsenal, or if any conflict should take 
place between them and the Union men. 

Blair did not hesitate. He never did. But, avail- 
ing himself of the excitement produced by the 
bringing of Federal troops to St. Louis, he began 
the formation of companies of Home Guards, that 
self-same night. The work, once begun, was carried 
on actively by him, with the assistance of a commit- 
tee of safety of which Oliver D. Filley, Mayor of 
the city, was chairman, and James O. Broadhead, 
secretary. Its other members were Samuel T. 
Glover, a Kentuckian, John How, a Pennsylvanian, 
and Julius J. Witzig, a German. Filley was a New 
Englander and Broadhead a Virginian. 

The first company which they enrolled was com- 
posed of both Germans and Americans, and Frank 
Blair was elected captain. Eleven companies, ag- 
gregating about seven hundred and fifty of^cers and 
men, nearly all of them Germans, were soon drilling 



io6 The Fight for Missouri. 

and getting ready for active service. Some of them 
were armed (partly by Governor Yates of Illinois, 
and partly by private contributions), but most of 
them were still unarmed, at the time that the elec- 
tion of delegates to the State Convention took 
place. 

The Governor and other Southern Rights men 
viewed these Home Guards with just apprehension ; 
and consequently they put into the military bill, 
then before the Legislature, a clause which was 
intended to disband them. This clause required the 
commanding officer of each of the several military 
districts into which the State was divided to dis- 
arm every organization within his district, which 
had not been " regularly organized and mustered 
into the service of the State ; " and to confiscate the 
arms of such organizations to the use of the State. 
Had this bill become a law in February, the course 
of events in Missouri might have been essentially 
changed. 

The St. Louis Secessionists were no less active than 
the Union men. They were few in number ; but 
most of them were young, ardent, and full of zeal. 
They regretted the determination of the Cotton 
States to secede. They would rather have had 
them remain within the Union, and fight within it 
Jor their constitutional rights. But they believed 
nevertheless that these States had the rijjht to se- 



Frank Blair Rebels Against the State. 107 

cede and to establish a separate Government if they 
chose to do so. Whether this was a constitutional 
right, or a revolutionary right they did not care ; 
nor ought they to have cared. For the God-given 
right of revolution is a higher and a more sacred 
right than any which is based upon the mere bar- 
gainings and concessions of men. The people who 
abandon it or fear to assert it alv/ays lose their free- 
dom sooner or later and sink surely to the condition 
of serfs or slaves. To the exercise of this natural 
right in 1776 the Republic owes its existence. To 
the assertion of it by the South in 1861 the Repub- 
lic owes its present grandeur, and its perfect unity. 

When South Carolina seceded these young St. 
Louisians no longer doubted that all the Cotton 
States would secede and form a Southern Con- 
federacy, that between this Confederacy and the 
Union war would ensue, and that in this war 
the whole country would take part. For them- 
selves they were resolved to fight with and for the 
South, among whose people and upon whose soil 
most of them had been born. 

Throwing aside all vain regrets and bravely ac- 
cepting the inevitable, they began at once to fit 
themselves for war ; began to learn the rudiments 
of the art in the school of the soldier. They were 
very few, however, till Sturgeon's folly set fire to 
the passions of men and lit the flames of civil war 



io8 The Fight for Missouri. 

on the soil of Missouri. Many then joined their 
ranks — many who had hitherto held aloof for love 
of the Union or for the sake of peace, but who now 
despaired of both. 

Among these was Basil Wilson Duke, a young 

lawyer from Kentucky. He was about twenty-five 

years of age, able, enterprising, and bold ; giving 

promise, even then, of those soldierly qualities 

which eventually made him John Morgan's most 

trusted lieutenant and the brilliant commander of 

a Confederate cavalry brigade. In the presidential 

election he had supported Douglas with great zeal 

and some eloquence, and since then had earnestly 

deprecated disunion and striven to stay the current 

that was setting toward secession in Missouri. Now 

he awoke suddenly to the conviction that the North 

was going to make war upon the South. That was 

enough for him. To go with his people when they 

were attacked ; to stand by them wdien they were in 

danger, uncaring whether they were right or wrong ; 

to share their perils, and to fight with them against 

tJicir foes, was with him an instinct and a duty. He 

at once joined the small band of secessionists and 

became their most conspicuous leader. Among 

them he found men as brave and as earnest as he ; 

some of them with ability equal to his own, and 

talents as useful, perhaps, though not so brilliant 

and attractive. 



Frank Blair Rebels Against the State. 109 

One of these, Colton Greene, was a prosperous 
young merchant, hardly as old as Duke. A South 
Carohnian by birth, he sympathized earnestly with 
the people of that State and justified their conduct 
in seceding. With a rather delicate physical organ- 
ization, and of a retiring disposition, he possessed 
fine sensibilities, a cultivated intellect which was 
both sharp and strong, courage, and determination. 
He was, withal, painstaking, laborious and earnest, 
upright and honorable. 

These two, with Rock Champion a great-hearted 
young Irishman, and a few others as daring, were as 
quick to organize the Secessionists into Minute Men 
as Blair had been to organize his Wide-A wakes into 
Home Guards; and they did it boldly and openly, 
beginning it the very day that the Federal troops 
arrived at St. Louis. 

Never was there a finer body of young fellows 
than these Minute Men. Some were Missourians ; 
some from the North ; some from the South ; and 
others were Irishmen. Among them all there was 
hardly a man who was not intelligent, educated, and 
recklessly brave. Some who had the least education 
were as brave as the bravest, and as true as the truest. 
Most of them fought afterwards on many a bloody 
field. Many of them died in battle. Some of them 
rose to high commands. Not one of them proved 
false to the cause to which he then pledged his faith. 



no TJic Fight for Missom'i. 

They established their head-quarters at the old 
Berthold mansion, in the very heart of the city, at 
the corner of Fifth and Pine Streets, and also formed 
and drilled companies in other parts of the city, 
against the time that they could arm and equip 
themselves. They were hardly three hundred in 
all, but they were so bold and active, so daring and 
ubiquitous, that every one accounted them ten 
times as numerous. 

Like Blair and the Home Guards, they had their 
eyes fixed upon the arsenal, and expected out of its 
abundant stores to arm and equip themselves for the 
coming fight. In that arsenal were sixty thousand 
good muskets, while in all the Confederate States 
there were not one hundred and fifty thousand 
more. They were barely three hundred men, and 
more than ten thousand stood ready to resist them ; 
but for love of the South, and for love of the right, 
and for the honor of Missouri, they were willing to 
peril their lives any day to get those muskets. And 
they would have gotten them or perished in the at- 
tempt but for the advice of their leaders at Jeffer- 
son City. 

These counseled delay. They believed that it 
was better to wait till the people should, in their 
election of delegates to the Convention, declare 
their purpose to side with the South. They never 
doubted that the people would do this ; never 



Frank Blair Rebels Against the State. 1 1 1 

doubted that they would elect a Convention which 
would pledge Missouri to resist the subjugation of 
the South, and would put her in position to do it. 
Sustained by the voice of the people, and instructed 
by their votes, the Governor would then order Gen- 
eral Frost to seize the arsenal in the name of the 
State, and he, with his brigade and the Minute Men, 
and the thousands that would flock to their aid, 
could easily do it. 

In anticipation of all this and of the passage of 
the military bill, one of whose provisions required, 
as has been told, the disbandment of all unauthor- 
ized military companies, the Minute Men were now 
organized, according to law, and five companies duly 
mustered into the State service by General Frost on 
the 13th of February. 

These companies — Captains Barret, Duke, Shaler, 
Greene and Hubbard — were then formed into a bat- 
talion, of which Captain James R. Shaler was elected 
major, and were assigned to Frost's Brigade. They 
afterwards formed part of Bowen's Regiment. 

Daniel M. Frost was a native of New York. 
Graduating at West Point, in 1844, he had served 
creditably in the Mexican War, and afterwards on 
the frontier. Marrying in St. Louis, in 185 1, he 
soon afterwards resigned his commission in the 
army and engaged in business in that city. Turn- 
ing his attention to politics, he was elected to the 



112 The Fig] it for Missojiri. 

State Senate, and, as a member of that body, pro- 
cured the enactment of the law under which the 
mihtia of the State was now organized. Under the 
provisions of that law he enlisted in 1 858-9 the 
troops which constituted the First Brigade of Mis- 
souri Volunteer Militia, and, having been appointed 
brigadier-general, was assigned to the command of 
it. This brigade consisted of a regiment of infan- 
try and some separate companies, and aggregated 
about five hundred and eighty officers and men. 

It had recently returned from the western border 
of the State, whither it had been sent in November 
to repel the incursions of a band of Kansas despera- 
does, who, under lead of a Captain Montgomery, 
were ravaging the frontier counties of Missouri. 
On this expedition the men had learned something 
of the duties of an army in the field, and, unevent- 
ful as the campaign was, had acquired much of the 
spirit and bearing of regular troops, and looked 
upon themselves and were regarded by others as 
veterans, which, indeed, many of them in fact were. 

Frost, in view of the threatening aspect of affairs, 
took every means to foster and strengthen this 
soldierly spirit of his men, and to prepare them 
thoroughly for war. In all this, he was zealously 
aided by both of^cers and men ; and towards the 
1st of February, his little brigade — a complete 
army in itself, with infantry, artillery and dra- 



Frank Blair Rebels Against the State. 1 1 3 

goons — was fully equipped, well drilled and dis- 
ciplined, and ready to take the field. 

Neither he nor his men had any very precise idea 
of the part which they would be called upon to 
take in the event of war between the North and the 
South. Like himself, they were, for the most part, 
Union men, but opposed to the subjugation of the 
South. Few of them expected to use their arms 
against the United States ; fewer still to use them 
against the South. They were citizens and soldiers 
of Missouri and were ready to fight for her. Fur- 
ther than that they did not then look, or care to 
look. 

The Governor trusted Frost fully, and he 
trusted him rightly. For Frost was not only an ac- 
complished soldier, well instructed in the art of war 
and experienced in all of its lesser duties, and one 
of the best of organizers and disciplinarians, but he 
was also perfectly true to the State, whose officer 
he was, and ready to defend her against all assail- 
ants, whoever they might be, and under whatever 
guise they might appear. It was for her to decide, 
in Convention, what position she would take if war 
should happen. Till then, it was his duty to obey 
the orders of his commander-in-chief, her Gov- 
ernor. One thing, however, he would not do. He 
would not make war upon the South. Virginians 
like Gamble and Bates and Broadhead, and Ken- 

8 



114 



The Fight for Missouri. 



tuckians like Blair and Brown and Glover, might, 
under the influence of a sublime patriotism, and 
a Brutus-like devotion to the Union, send down 
armies to lay waste their native land, and slay their 
brothers, and widow their sisters, and drive them far 
away from their ruined homes, but he. Northern- 
born though he was, would not help them to do it. 

Whatever judgment history shall, in the distant 
future^ pass upon the conduct of those Northern 
men, who, living in the South, like Frost, stood by 
the South in her hour of great peril, and bared 
their swords in her defence, fighting for the weak 
against the strong, the people for whom these men 
fought should always hold them in honor, and in 
the most grateful remembrance. 

No one comprehended more clearly than General 
Frost the necessity which compelled Missouri to 
keep the arsenal and its stores within her grasp, if 
she would arm and equip her people ; as arm them 
she must, sooner or later, whether to fight for the 
Union, or against it, or to maintain her own neutral- 
ity. This necessity he made manifest to the Gov- 
ernor, and was by him authorized to seize the ar- 
senal, whenever the occasion might require such 
decisive action. 

In the performance of the duty thus entrusted to 
him, Frost came to an understanding with Major 
Bell, the commandant of the arsenal. In com- 



Frank Blair Rebels Against the State. 115 

municating this fact to the Governor the General 
wrote on the 24th of January: ' 

" I have just returned from the arsenal. 
I found the Major everything that you or I could 
desire. He assured me that he considered that 
Missouri had, whenever the time came, a right to 
claim it as being on her soil. He asserted his 
determination to defend it against any, and all ir- 
responsible mobs, come from whence they might, 
but at the same time gave me to understand that 
he would not attempt any defence against the 
proper State authorities. 

" He promised me, upon the honor of an officer 
and a gentleman, that he would not suffer any arms 
to be removed from the place without first giving 
me timely information ; and I promised him, in re- 
turn, that I would use all the force at my command to 
prevent him being annoyed by irresponsible persons. 

" I, at the same time, gave him notice that, if 
affairs assumed so threatening a character as to 
render it unsafe to leave the place in its compara- 
tively unprotected condition, I might come down 
and quarter a proper force there to protect it from 
the assaults of any persons whatsoever, to which he 
assented. In a word the Major is with us, where he 
ought to be, for all his worldly wealth lies here in 
St. Louis (and it is very large), and then again, his 
sympathies are with us. . . . 



Ii6 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

" I shall be thoroughly prepared with the proper 
force to act as the emergency may require, but the 
use of force will only be resorted to when nothing 
else will avail to prevent the shipment or removal of 
the arms. 

" . . . The arsenal, if properly looked after, 
will be everything to our State, and I intend to 
look after it ; very quietly, however. I have every 
confidence in the word of honor pledged to me by 
the Major, and would as soon think of doubting the 
oath of the best man in the community. ... Of 
course I did not show him your order, but I in- 
formed him that you had authorized me to act as I 
might think proper to protect the public property." 

It must be remembered that though Missouri was 
at that time within the Union, the right of the 
several States to the Federal property within their 
limits had not then been as clearly defined as it has 
since been by the high court of war, the supremest 
of all earthly tribunals. 

But the United States Government was now get- 
ting ready to defend the arsenal against Home 
Guards, Minute Men, and the State. 

Sturgeon, elated by the success of his first at- 
tempt to direct the movements of the United 
States army, and encouraged by the less pacific 
attitude which the President had latterly assumed 
toward the South, wrote again, and less guardedly, 



Frank Blair Rebels Against the State. 1 1 7 

to the President, on the day after Lieutenant Rob- 
inson's arrival at St. Louis (January 12). 

"The secession paper of the city," said he, "and 
those who follow it seemed to think it highly im- 
proper that the Government should send troops 
here to guard its public property from seizure. All 
Union men, however, are gratified that the Govern- 
ment has taken this precautionary measure. I wish 
it was about two hundred instead of forty men." 

To General Scott he wrote the same day, and, as 
was becoming, wrote somewhat as one soldier might 
write to another: 

"About two hundred (200) men, well officered 
and well armed, should be kept in the arsenal to 
furnish a nucleus around which the Union-loving, 
law-abiding, and conservative elements of the city 
might rally to prevent any unlawful proceeding." 

These letters from Sturgeon, and perhaps others 
from other people, turned General Scott's attention 
to St. Louis, and a few days later Major Peter V. 
Hagner was ordered to relieve Major Bell as com- 
mandant of the arsenal, and the latter was ordered 
to New York. Instead of obeying this order, Major 
Bell resigned his commission in the army and retired 
to his farm in St. Charles County, Missouri. Major 
Hagner assumed command of the post on the 24th 
of January. 

Hagner was a native of Washington city. He 



ii8 The Fight for Missouri. 

graduated at West Point in 1836, and during the 
Florida War served in the artillery. He was trans- 
ferred to the ordnance department in 1838. In the 
war with Mexico he was brevetted captain for gal- 
lant and meritorious conduct at Cerro Gordo. For 
his conduct at Chapultepec he was brevetted major. 
At the St. Cosme gate he was wounded while gal- 
lantly fighting. His commission as captain of ord- 
nance was dated July 10, 185 1. His brevet rank of 
major dated from September 13, 1847. The signifi- 
cance of these dates will appear in the course of 
this story. He v/as now about forty-eight years of 
age, and was recognized by every one as an officer 
of ability, experience, integrity, and honor, and 
worthy of all confidence. 



CHAPTER VI. 

NATHANIEL LYON. 

Nathaniel Lyon — A Sketch of the Man and of his Career — He is or- 
dered to the St. Louis Arsenal — Asserts his Right to the Command 
there — The President Sustains Hagner — Lyon wins Blair's Confi- 
dence — Drills and Disciplines the Home Guards — Renews his 
Contest with Hagner — Reinforcement of the Arsenal — The State 
Election — Overwhelming defeat of the Secessionists — Their Mo- 
mentary Submission — Lyon and Blair again urge Hagner's Dis- 
placement — Lyon denounces Hagner's " Imbecility or Damned 
Viliany," and General Scott's "Sordid Partisanship and Fondness 
for Toadies" — What He would do — The Minute Men try to Pro- 
voke a Riot in St. Louis — Lyon Assigned to Command of all the 
Troops at the Arsenal, but not over Hagner and the Arsenal — The 
St. Louis Election — Defeat of the Union Men — Their Alarm — 
Lyon in Command at St. Louis — He distrusts Lincoln, but has 
faith in " Almighty Truth." 

Nathaniel Lyon was born in Ashford, Con- 
necticut, on the I4tli of July, i8i8. He entered 
West Point in 1837, ^^X*^ graduating in 1841 was as- 
signed to the Second Infantry. With that regiment 
he served in Florida till 1842, and with it he took 
part in the war with Mexico. On the march from 
Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico he was promoted 
to the first lieutenancy of his company and as such 
commanded it during that campaign. At Cerro 
Gordo he was with Harney. For his gallant con- 



I20 The Fight for Missouri. 

duct in the battles of Churubusco and Gontreras, he 
was, with three other officers, commended to the 
"special notice" of his brigade commander, and was 
brevetted captain on the 20th of August, 1847. Oi^ 
entering the city he was slightly wounded. 

From 1849 to 1853 he was on duty in California, 
and while there made a successful campaign against 
the Clear Lake Indians of Northern California. 
General Persifor F. Smith, in his report to the War 
Department, says, " That all the officers in the ex- 
pedition united in awarding the highest praise to 
Captain Lyon for his untiring energy, zeal, and 
skill, and attribute his success to the rapidity and 
secrecy of his marches, and to his skilful disposi- 
tions on the ground." 

Many stories are told of his adventures in this 
wild region. On one occasion when all alone, 
he was attacked suddenly by three mounted \n- 
dians. His presence of mind and quickness of 
movement saved him. With a bullet he emptied 
the saddle of the foremost. Turning upon the next 
with his sabre, he buried its blade in the Indian's 
body. The third savage was glad to get away un- 
harmed. 

Returning to Benicia toward the end of Septem- 
ber, 185 1, Captain Lyon enjoyed a much-needed rest. 
He pictures himself, at this time, as continuing in 
his " usual and long established customs, grow- 



Nathaniel Lyon. 121 

ing old, indeed, but not ashamed to own it ; proud, 
perhaps, but not haughty ; prudent, it may be, in 
worldly affairs, yet not crafty for wealth ; desirous 
enough of fame, but not infatuated with blind ambi- 
tion ; and, in general, taking the world as it comes, 
enjoying richly its many blessings, sympathizing 
with the unfortunate, and laughing with the indif- 
ference of cool philosophy at the sore disappoint- 
ments with which selfishness and cupidity are ever 
torturing their victims." 

During the greater part of 1852 he was on leave 
of absence in the Eastern States, and took great 
interest in the then pending presidential election. 
He was at that time a staunch Democrat, and so 
enthusiastic an admirer of Franklin Pierce, that on 
his way back to California he made a speech in his 
favor to his fellow-passengers on the steam-ship. 

The next year he returned to the East with his 
regiment and spent a part of the winter at Washing- 
ton. While there he listened eagerly to the debates 
in Congress on the question of slavery in the Terri- 
tories, for the Kansas-Nebraska bill was then under 
consideration. His earnest nature was deeply im- 
pressed by what he heard, and his sympathies were 
aroused in behalf of the negro. 

The next year (1854) he was sent with his com- 
pany to Fort Riley, some 120 miles west of Kansas 
City, and there he got into the very midst of that 



122 The Fight for Missouri. 

bitter contention and savage v/arfare, with which 
North and South were then struggHng for the pos- 
session of Kansas — for supremacy in the Union, and 
for freedom or slavery. 

Lyon was not slow to espouse the cause of the 
slave, and to maintain it with all the earnestness of 
his Puritan disposition ; and he did all that an ofificer 
of the army dared do for the success of the party of 
freedom, and for the triumph of the Free-State men. 

Extracts from letters which he wrote about this 
time show how he was being educated for the work 
that he was to do in Missouri. 

In March, 1855, he writes that ''preparations are 
now in progress to resist the arrogant and insolent 
imposition of Missourians. Whether they will prove 
effective may be seen in the result. Indeed it is 
fully apprehended that the aggressions of the pro- 
slavery men will not be checked till a lesson has 
been taught them in letters of fire and blood." 

In December, " I have seen so much of the over- 
bearing domination of the pro-slavery people in 
Kansas toward the Free-State men that I am per- 
suaded that the latter have either to fight in self- 
defence or submit ignobly to the demands of their 
aggressors. ... I despair of living peaceably 
with our Southern brethren without making dis- 
graceful concessions, but rest assured that this will 
not always be, and in this view I foresee ultimate 



Nathaniel Lyon. 123 

sectional strife, which I do not care to delay." And 
about the same tin^e he speaks of the then Secretary 
of War, as "that heartless villain, Jefferson Davis." 

In 1856, he seriously considered whether it were 
not better to resign his commission, and quit the 
army, than, as one of its ofifiicers, aid in enforcing 
the laws of the United States in Kansas. He 
looked upon *' the course of the General Govern- 
ment as selfish, partial and corrupt," and " could not 
submit to the self-debasement and humiliation of 
being employed as a tool in the hands of evil rulers 
for the accomplishment of evil ends." From the 
necessity of resigning he was saved by being or- 
dered out of Kansas. 

But he was in Kansas again in 1859, '^^'^^ taking 
as active an interest as ever in the contest between 
slavery and freedom ; was with General Harney, in 
December i860, when Frost's Brigade was sent by 
the Governor of Missouri to co-operate with Har- 
ney in arresting Montgomery, and protecting the 
country adjacent to Fort Scott ; and was left by 
Harney at Fort Scott, after Montgomery and his 
band had dispersed and escaped. 

From that post he wrote, January 27, 1861 : 

" I do not consider troops at all necessary here, 
and should much prefer to be employed in the 
legitimate and appropriate service of contributing 
to stay the idiotic fratricidal hands now at work to 



124 ^/^^ FigJit for Missouri. 

destroy our Government. . . . It is no longer 
useful to appeal to reason, but to the sword, and 
trifle no longer in senseless wrangling. I shall not 
hesitate to rejoice at the triumph of my principles, 
though this triumph may involve an issue, in which 
I certainly expect to expose, and very likely shall 
lose, my life. I would a thousand times rather incur 
this, than recall the result of our presidential elec- 
tion. We shall rejoice, though, in martyrdom if 
need be." 

Four days later he was ordered to St. Louis, with 
his company. 

He was now in the forty-third year of his age ; 
of less than medium height ; slender and angular ; 
with abundant hair of a sandy color, and a coarse 
reddish-brown beard. He had deep-set blue eyes ; 
features that were rough and homely ; and the 
weather-beaten aspect of a man who had seen 
much hard service on the frontier. What manner 
of soldier he was will soon be seen. 

His first act on reaching the arsenal was charac- 
teristic of the man, of his contentious spirit, and 
aggressive disposition, of his resolute purpose to 
have his own way, of his distrust of all conservative 
men, like Major Hagner. Though the latter was 
five years his senior in the service, his commission 
as captain was twenty days junior to Lyon's ; for 
promotion in the ordnance was slower than in the 



Nathaniel Lyon. 125 

infantry, to whiclt Lyon belonged. But he had 
been assigned to duty at the arsenal according to 
his brevet rank of major, and that made him 
senior to Lyon. 

No regard for Hagner's greater age, or longer ser- 
vice ; no feeling of courtesy towards an older 
brother in arms, weighed with Lyon for a moment 
against the fact that Hagner was not an Aboli- 
tionist, that his wife v/as the daughter of a slave- 
holder, and himself the friend and associate of 
Southern sympathizers. Such a man was not, in 
his opinion, to be trusted with so important a com- 
mand as the St. Louis arsenal ; such a man was 
not fit to have authority over a true and loyal 
soldier like himself. He at once asserted his own 
right to the command, by virtue of his senior com- 
mission as captain. The question was submitted 
to General Harney. He sustained Hagner, and 
Lyon thereupon appealed to the President. He, 
too, sustained Hagner, and Lyon had to submit for 
the time. 

This struggle with Hagner had not diverted his 
attention from what was happening around him, nor 
had it kept him out of the greater struggle to which 
it was merely subsidiary. He at once established 
the closest relations with Blair, and the other influ- 
ential Union men of St. Louis, and by his zeal, in- 
telligence and bcldness won their instant and per- 



126 The Fight for ]\Iissou7'i. 

feet confidence. They saw that' he was the very- 
man that they needed ; that he had been sent to 
them, as it were, by Providence or by Fate to save 
Missouri to the Union. 

Practical always, he went straight to work to or- 
ganize, drill and discipline the Home Guards, and to 
convert them into soldiers upon whom he could rely 
to defend the arsenal and to fight the Secession- 
ists. He frequented their drill-rooms and armories; 
instructed the officers and men ; inspired them with 
confidence in himself ; taught them too to have faith 
in themselves and in the cause for which they were 
going to battle; fired their enthusiasm ; and inflamed 
their patriotism. 

The election of delegates to the State Conven- 
tion w^as to take place on the i8th of February. 
The whole Commonwealth was profoundly agitated. 
In St. Louis the wildest excitement prevailed. The 
Secessionists were confident of success, and openly 
boasted that if they carried the State they would 
seize the arsenal, and out of its stores arm equip 
and supply the State Guard, which the General 
Assembly would then authorize to be enlisted, and 
called into active service. 

Blair and Lyon appreciated the danger, and re- 
doubled their efforts to meet it. They believed 
that if they could get absolute control of the 
arsenal and its storeS; they need not fear any force 



NatJianiel Lyon. 127 

which the State or the Secessionists could bring 
against it ; for they could then arm and equip 
the Home Guards and their other adherents, with 
these stores, and send what was left to Illinois wliere 
they would be safe. 

Under no circumstances would Hagner distribute 
the arms to the Home Guards. He could not do it 
without violating the laws of his country and his 
oath as an ofificer ; and these were things that he 
could not do. He had not yet learned that ivcrr 
silences iaw and burns up in its flames all formal 
oaths. 

Lyon had learned this, and he knew that the 
country was on the verge of war; that armed men were 
gathering at the North and at the South to begin 
the deadly conflict; and he had made up his mind 
to issue the arms to the Home Guards in case of 
need, despite both Hagner and Harney. He would 
not let a law, which was intended for the safety of 
the Union, be used for the destruction of the 
Union ; he would not stand idly by and let the arms 
which belonged to the Union be turned against the 
Union by its worst enemy. But he did not wish to 
be forced into an unlawful course, if it could be 
avoided; not that he cared much about it himself, 
but there were a great many law-abiding Union men 
in Missouri, whom it would be unwise to offend or 
to alarm. Their feelings and their prejudices must 



128 The Fight for Missouri. 

be consulted, or they might take part with the State 
and against the Federal Government. He and Blair 
resolved, accordingly, to try again to have himself 
placed in command of the arsenal. This would 
be accomplished if the President would order Hag- 
ner to be assigned to duty, without reference to 
his brevet rank. 

"I should care nothing," said Lyon," for the deci- 
sion against me, as I have told Major Hagner, if he 
would take proper precautions for defence. The 
place is in imminent danger of attack, and the Gov- 
ernor of Missouri will no doubt demand its sur- 
render if the State shall pass an ordinance of seces- 
sion. The prospect is gloomy and forebodes an un- 
necessary sacrifice of life, in-case of hostile demon- 
strations. But I do not despair of an effective de- 
fence, and I hope to administer a lasting rebuke to 
the traitors who have thus far had their own way." 

As the Buchanan administration would not listen 
to Blair and himself, they got Sturgeon to write 
again, on the 9th of February, to General Scott, and 
to advise him to reinforce the arsenal with all the 
troops that were at Jefferson Barracks, and to place 
Lyon in command of both them and the arsenal. 

Scott ordered the troops to the arsenal, but he 
left Hagner in command; and on the i6th of Feb- 
ruary — two days before the election — 203 ofificers 
and men were, in obedience to this order, brought to 



NatJianicl Lyon. 129 

the arsenal, which was further reinforced a few 
days later, by 102 ofificers and men. These rein- 
forcements increased the troops at the post to nine 
officers and 484 men. General Harney now informed 
the War Department in a report made on the 19th 
of February that there never had been any danger 
of an attack upon the arsenal, and that if one should 
be made " the garrison would be promptly rescued 
by an overwhelming force from the city." 

Whatever danger may have existed had in fact 
passed. For the State had, in the election of dele- 
gates to the Convention, declared against secession 
by an overwhelming m.ajority, and had affirmed the 
loyalty of her citizens to the Union. The Secession- 
ists were for the moment utterly disheartened. The 
General Assembly sullenly submitted to the will of 
the people, and postponed the consideration of 
every measure looking to the preparation of the 
State for war, or for the maintenance even of her 
own neutrality. 

Lyon and Blair were not deceived by these delu- 
sive signs of peace, nor did they relax their efforts 
to get ready for war. They knew that it would 
break out sooner or later, and that whoever then 
held the arsenal would hold St. Louis, and that 
whoever held St. Louis and the arsenal would in 
the end hold Missouri. 

They did not even wait for the inauguration of 
9 



130 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

Lincoln, now only a few days off, but Blair himself 
hastened to Washington in order to beg Mr. 
Buchanan to immediately assign Lyon to the com- 
mand of the arsenal ; stopping, however, at Spring- 
field to explain the condition of affairs to Mr. Lin- 
coln, and to prepare him to act promptly on assum- 
ing ofifice. But neither Mr. Buchanan nor General 
Scott would give heed to Blair's entreaties. For they 
distrusted both him and Lyon, and would not give 
them the power to inaugurate civil v/ar in Missouri. 
Moreover, they had implicit confidence in both 
Harney and Hagner, and felt sure that they would 
do all that could be done for the safety of the 
arsenal, and for the maintenance of the Federal 
authority in Missouri, 

Lyon meanwhile kept urging Hagner to strengthen 
the defences of the arsenal, and suggested many 
ways in which this could be done. Hagner paid no 
attention to his suggestions. Lyon, losing all pa- 
tience, wrote to Blair on the 25th of February: 

" Major Hagner refuses to do any of these 
things and has given his orders not to fly to the 
walls to repel an approach, but to let the enemy 
have all the advantages of the wall to lodge himself 
behind it, and get possession of all outside buildings 
overlooking us, and to get inside, and under shelter 
of our outbuildings, which we are not to occupy be- 
fore wc make resistance. TJiis is eitJicr imbecility or 



Nathaniel Lyoit. 131 

damned villany ; and in contemplating the risks we 
run, and the sacrifices that we must make in case of 
an attack, in contrast to the vigorous and effective 
defence we are capable of, and which (in view of the 
cause of our country and humanity, and the disgrace 
and degradation to which the Government has been 
subjected by pusillanimity and treachery) we are 
now called upon to make, I get myself into a most 
unhappy state of solicitude and irritability. With 
even less force and proper dispositions I am confi- 
dent we can resist any force that can be brought 
against us ; by which I mean such force as would 
not be overcome by our sympathizing friends out- 
side. These needful dispositions, can, with proper 
industry, be made within twenty-four hours. There 
cannot be, as you know, a more important occasion, 
or a better opportunity to strike an effective blow 
at this arrogant infatuation of secessionism than 
here ; and must all this be lost by either false no- 
tions of duty, or covert disloyalty ? 

" As I have said. Major Hagner has no right to 
the command, and, under the Sixty-second Article of 
War, can only have it by a special assignment of the 
President, which I do not believe has been made ; 
but that the announcement of General Seott that the 
command belongs to Major Hagner is his oion decision 
and done in his usual sordid spirit of partisanship, 
and favoritism to pets, and personal associates, and 



132 The Fig] it for Missouri. 

toadies ; nor can he, even in the present straits of 
the country, rise above this in earnest devotion to 
justice and the wants of his country. If Mr. Lin- 
cohi chooses to be deceived in this respect, as I fear 
he will be, he will repent it in misfortune and sorrow ; 
for neither supercilious conceit nor unscrupulous 
tyranny was ever a veil for patriotism or ability. 
Major Hagner is not accustomed to troops, and 
manages them here awkwardly, but this is nothing 
compared to the great matter on hand, and this, as 
I have plainly told him, is of much more importance 
than that either he, or I, should conduct it. A 
simple order, countermanding that assigning him to 
duty according to brevet ranlc, would give me com- 
mand. With a view to defence here, it would, how- 
ever, be well to add that I should assume control, 
and avail myself of all means available for the pur- 
pose. ... If I should have command I v/ould 
have no trouble to arm any assisting party, and 
perhaps, by becoming responsible for the arms, etc., 
I might fit out the regiment we saw at the Garden 
the other day." 

An event which happened on the day that Lincoln 
was inaugurated, and on which the State Convention 
began its sessions at St. Louis (March 4th), came very 
near precipitating the conflict in Missouri, and gave 
Blair and Lyon good cause to press their demands 
upon the Government. 



Nathaniel Lyon. 133 

During the preceding night some of the Minute 
Men (Duke, Greene, Ouinlan, Champion, and McCoy) 
raised the flag of Missouri over the dome of the 
Court-house, and hoisted above their own head- 
quarters a nondescript banner, which was intended 
to represent the flag of the Confederate States. 
The custodian of the Court-house remov^ed the 
State flag from that building early in the morning ; 
but the secession flag still floated audaciously and 
defiantly above the Minute Men's head-quarters, in 
the very face of the Submissionists' Convention, of 
the Republican Mayor, and his German police, of 
the department commander, and of Lyon and his 
Home Guards ; and under its folds there was gath- 
ered as daring a set of young fellows as ever did a 
bold, or a reckless deed. They were about a score 
at first, but when an excited crowd began to 
threaten their quarters, and the rumor to fly that 
the Home Guards were coming to tear down their 
flag, the number of its defenders grew to about one 
hundred. They all had muskets of the latest and 
very best pattern. On the floors of the upper 
rooms were heaps of hand grenades. In the wide 
hall was a swivel, double-shotted, and so planted as 
to rake the main entrance if any one should be 
brave enough to try to force it. At every window 
there were determined men, with loaded muskets, 
and fixed bayonets ; behind them were others, ready 



134 '^^^^ Fight for Missouri. 

to take the place of any that might fall ; and in all 
the building there was not a man who was not 
ready to fight to the death, rather than submit to 
the rule of Abraham Lincoln ; nor one who would 
have quailed in the presence of a thousand foes, 
nor one of them that survives to-day, who would not 
fight just as willingly and just as bravely for the flag 
of the Union. Outside, too, throughout the ever- 
growing crowd, other Minute Men were stationed, 
to act as the emergency might require. 

Before the hour of noon had come all the streets 
in the vicinity were thronged with excited men, 
some drawn thither by mere curiosity and by 
that strange magnetism which mobs always exert ; 
some to take part with the Minute Men, if "the 
Dutch " should attack them ; some to tear down 
" the rebel flag," and to hang " the traitors," who 
had dared to raise it on the day of Lincoln's inau- 
guration. 

Everything betokened a terrible riot and a bloody 
fight. The civil authorities were powerless. It was 
to no purpose that they implored the crowd to dis- 
perse ; in vain that they begged the Minute Men to 
haul down their flag. The police could do nothing. 
The Home Guards did not dare to attack, for their 
leaders knew that the first shot that was fired would 
bring Frost's Brigade, which was largely composed 
of Minute Men, to the aid of their friends, and that 



Nathaniel Lyon. 135 

they would also be reinforced by the Irish, between- 
whom and the German Home Guards there was the 
antipathy of both race and rehgion. Only once did 
any one venture to approach the well-guarded portals 
of the strong-hold. The rash fools that did it were 
hurled back into the street, amid the jeers and 
laughter of the crowd. Blair and the Republican 
leaders, unwilling to provoke a conflict, kept their 
followers quiet, and finally towards midnight the 
crowd dispersed. The next day's sun shone upon 
the rebel flag still flying above the roof of the Min- 
ute Men's quarters. But Duke and Greene were 
unhappy, for they had hoped to bring on a fight, in 
which they would have been reinforced by Frost's 
Brigade, and the Irish and many Americans, and in 
the confusion to seize the arsenal, and hold it till 
the Secessionists of the State could come to their 
aid. They were, nevertheless, greatly elated because 
the people believed more than ever that there were 
thousands of Minute Men, instead of hundreds. 

Blair used the incident with effect at the War 
Department, and a few days later (March 13) 
Lyon was assigned to the command of all the 
troops at the arsenal and of its defences. General 
Harney, however, still thwarted the desires of Blair 
and Lyon, by instructing the latter that the order 
of the War Department did not confer upon him 
any authority over Major Hagncr, or any control 



136 TJlc Fight for Missouri. 

over the arms and other material of war in the 
arsenal, which was the very thing that Blair and 
Lyon needed in order to issue arms to the Home 
Guards. For the full consummation of their desires 
they had still to wait. 

Various causes which have been set out in a pre- 
vious chapter, and among these the enactment of 
the law which placed the police, and all other con- 
servators of the peace, and also the volunteer mili- 
tia of St. Louis, under the orders of commissioners 
appointed by and in sympathy with the Governor, 
wrought a complete change in the political status 
of that city ; and at the Municipal Election, which 
was held on the ist of April, Daniel G. Taylor, the 
candidate of those who were opposed to Lincoln's 
administration and to war against the South, was 
chosen mayor by a majority of 2,658 votes, over 
John How, the candidate of the Unconditional 
Union men. 

As Mr. How was an exceptionally popular man, a 
leading member of the Union Safety Committee, 
and a devoted supporter of Blair and Lyon, his 
defeat by so large a majority was in itself enough to 
alarm the Union men. But the matter was made 
worse for them by the fact that through this elec- 
tion the whole organized power of the city was 
taken from the Union men, and given to their 
enemies. The Governor had already put the police 



Natha)iicl Lyon. 137 

under the control of Duke, the leader of the Minute 
Men, James H. CarHsle and Charles McLaren, two 
avowed Secessionists, and John A. Brownlec, who, 
though a Northern man, was strongly opposed to 
the subjugation of the South. 

This new danger only caused Lyon, who fully 
realized its magnitude, to become more resolute, 
and to work more earnestly. To some Union men, 
who expressed to him their fears that the Southern 
men would now try to seize the arsenal, he said 
that in that event he would issue arms to the Home 
Guards and Union men, law or no law ; and that if 
Major Hagner interfered he would " pitch him into 
the river." To Blair, who was again in Washington, 
he wrote on the 6th of April that the Government 
should forthwith give him entire control of every- 
thing at the arsenal without exception of men or 
means. His desire had been already realized and in 
a way which was unexpected, for General Harney, 
who seems to have at last begun to recognize the 
fact that there was at least a possibility of war, had 
that very day made an order which virtually placed 
Hagner and the arsenal and everything in it under 
his command. 

Lyon was now master of St. Louis. But, far- from 
being content with the vantage that he had gained, 
he was only anxious to use it for the accomplish- 
ment of greater things. Lnpatient, earnest, and 



138 The Fight for Missouri. 

eager to get at the throats of " the traitorous slave- 
holders," he ill-brooked the slowness with which 
Lincoln seemed to be moving. He feared " that 
the President lacked the resolution to grapple with 
treason and to put it down forever ; " that " he was 
not the man for the hour," and that " our political 
triumph had been in vain. If matters go on as they 
do, we shall soon have " (so he wrote) '' a formidable 
array of hostile troops upon us. When this comes, 
it will, I trust, arouse the supine and timid North to 
a patriotic resolution, which shall, in spite of Execu- 
tive tamperings, do something to retrieve her pres- 
ent degradation. If Mr. Lincoln does one tithe of 
his duty, as he has promised, we must have hostili- 
ties with the South. ... I do not see how war 
is to be avoided. Under quack management it may 
be long and bloody, yet I have no apprehensions 
about the final triumph of Alm.ighty Truth, though 
at the cost of many unnecessary sacrifices. But let 
them come! I would rather sec the country 
lighted up with flames from its centre to its re- 
motest borders, than that the great rights and hopes 
of the human race should expire before the arro- 
gance of Secessionists. Of this, however, there is 
no danger. They are at war with nature and the 
human heart, and cannot succeed." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ARSENAL. 

Bombardment of Fort Sumter — The President calls for Seventy-five 
Thousand Troops — The Reponse of the North — Its effect at the 
South and in the Burder States — The Missouri Republican — 
Governor Jackson's Reply — Frcst'o Advice — The Legislature Con- 
vened — A plan to Capture the Arsenal — Commissioners sent South 
for Siege Guns — Frost's Brigade Ordered into Encampment — The 
Plan Divulged to Harney and Lyon — Lyon Calls on the Governor 
of Illinois for Troops, and occupies the Hills around the Arsenal — 
Bowen ordered to Report with his Command to Frost — Lyon 
authorized to Arm the Home Guards — Harney Countermands 
the Order — Seizure of Liberty Arsenal by Secessionists — Harney 
ordered to Washington City — Lyon arms the Home Guards, and 
sends the Surplus Arms to Alton. 

While these things were being done in Missouri, 
delegates from South Carohna, Georgia, Florida, 
Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, had met at Mont- 
gomery Alabama, on the 4th of February ; had 
adopted a Provisional Constitution for " the Con- 
federate States of America" on the 8th; and had 
elected Jefferson Davis to be President and Alexan- 
der H. Stephens Vice-President of this Provisional 
Government on the 9th. 

Mr. Davis, who was at that time in command of 
the army which Mississippi was raising for her de- 



140 The FigJit for Missouri. 

fence, seems to have been reluctant to accept the 
Presidency. For he had at last come to believe, 
contrary to the common opinion of the Southern 
people, that war was at least likely to ensue; and, 
fancying himself better fitted for the field than for 
the Cabinet, preferred the command of an army to 
the Presidency. He and Mr. Stephens were, never- 
theless, inaugurated on the i8th of February. 

The Provisional Congress had already (February 
12) taken under its charge the questions and dififi- 
culties then existing between the several Confeder- 
ate States and the Government of the United 
States, relating to the occupation of forts, arsenals, 
navy yards, and other public establishments; and 
had also (February 15) requested the President elect 
to send three commissioners to Washington city to 
treat with the Federal Government as to those mat- 
ters, and to establish friendly relations with the 
United States. 

These commissioners opened informal negotia- 
tions with the Administration on the 12th of March, 
with relation chiefly to the evacuation of Fort 
Sumter), and succeeded at last in getting from the 
Government an assurance that it would not un- 
dertake to supply that fort without first giving 
notice to the Confederates. On the 8th of April 
this notice was given to General Beauregard, who 
had been assigned (March i) to the command of all 



TJie Arsenal. 141 

the troops, near Charleston. The fact having been 
communicated to his Government by Beauregard, he 
was ordered (April 10) by the Secretary of War to 
demand the evacuation of the fort. This demand 
was made the next day. The negotiations which 
followed were, at 3.30 o'clock on the morning of the 
1 2th, terminated by a notice from General Beaure- 
gard that unless the fort were surrendered within an 
hour, he would open fire upon it. At 4.30 A.:\I. a 
signal shell was accordingly thrown into Sumter, 
and a few moments later fire was opened from all the 
Confederate batteries. Major Anderson returned 
the fire about 7 A.M. It was then kept up contin- 
uously by both sides for nearly thirty-four hours 
until, at about two o'clock in the afternoon of the 
13th, the fort was surrendered. 

"The effect of the assault on Fort Sumter," says 
Mr. Blaine, " and the lowering of the national flag 
to the forces of the Confederacy acted upon the 
North as an inspiration, consolidating public senti- 
ment, dissipating all differences, bringing the whole 
people to an instant and unanimous determination 
to avenge the insult, and to re-establish the author- 
ity of the Union. Yesterday there had been divi- 
sion. To-day there w^as unity." 

The President issued a proclamation on the 15th, 
calling on the militia of the several States to the 
number of seventy-five thousand, to " suppress 



142 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

combinations in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, too 
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course 
of judicial proceedings ; ... to maintain the 
honor, the integrity, and the existence of our Na- 
tional Union, and the perpetuity of popular govern- 
ment ; . . . and to repossess the forts, places, 
and property which have been seized from the 
Union." 

On the same day the Secretary of War tele- 
graphed to the governors of all the States which 
had not seceded, requesting them to detail from the 
militia of their several States enough men to make 
up the total of seventy-five thousand troops called 
for by the President, " to serve as infantry, or rifle- 
men, for a period of three months." The quota to 
be furnished by each State was set forth in these 
telegrams. 

" The proclamation," to use once more the pic- 
turesque words of Mr. Blaine, " was responded to in 
the loyal States with an unparalleled burst of enthu- 
siasm. On the day of its issue hundreds of public 
meetings were held from the eastern border of 
Maine to the extreme western frontier. Work was 
suspended on farm and in factory, and the whole 
people were aroused to patriotic ardor, and to a de- 
termination to subdue the Rebellion and restore the 
Union, whatever might be the expenditure of treas- 



The Arsenal. 



143 



ure or the sacrifice of life. Telegrams and congratula- 
tions of sympathy fell upon the White House like 
snow flakes in a storm." 

Northern Democrats talked no more of " resistino- 
the march of a Black Republican army to the 
South," nor of "offering their dead bodies as an 
obstruction to its progress." They became instantly 
and earnestly " loyal," and their great leader, Stephen 
A. Douglas, promptly waited on Mr. Lincoln, and 
expressing his deepest sympathy, tendered his ac- 
tive co-operation. 

The effect upon the South was no less instanta- 
neous and decisive. 

Throughout the seceded States the wildest en- 
thusiasm took possession of every one. They had 
fought the United States, and had won the fight. 
They had, after a bombardment the like of which 
few living men had ever seen, taken the strongest 
Federal fortress in all the Confederacy. They sud- 
denly awoke " to a sense of power and became wild 
with confidence in their ability to defy the authority 
of the United States." 

In the border slave-holding States, which till 
now had remained steadfast in their allegiance to 
the Union, the sympathy of the people with their 
Southern kindred was carried to the highest pitch, 
and their Governors, in responding to Mr. Lincoln's 
call for troops to invade the South, gave utterance 



]44 The Fight for Missouri. 

to this universal feeling : Virginia would furnish no 
militia " to the powers at Washington for the sub- 
jugation of the Southern States." North Carolina 
" would be no party to the wicked violation of 
the laws of the country, and to the war upon the 
liberties of a free people." *' Tennessee would not 
furnish a single man for coercion, but would raise 
fifty thousand men for the defence of her rights and 
those of her Southern brethren." " The people of 
Arkansas would defend to the last extremity their 
honor and their property against Northern men- 
dacity and usurpation." Kentucky " would furnish 
no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her 
sister States of the South." 

Missouri was intensely excited. The Secession- 
ists were exultant, and even the Submissionists took 
heart again and became defiant. The St. Louis Rc- 
piiblican, whose columns reflected with wonderful 
fidelity the ever-varying phases of public opinion, 
the wishes, the fears and the hopes of the rich men 
of Missouri, of her slave-holders, of the owners of 
her great landed estates, of the proprietors and 
managers of her banks and railways and other great 
corporations, of her merchants and of her manufac- 
turers, said the day after the surrender of Sumter 
and before the President had called out the militia : 

" No matter what may be the expenditure of life 
and money, the seceding States never can be con- 



TJic Arsenal. 145 

quered. A more unrighteous and unpopular war 
was never inaugurated. And we look to the people 
of the free States, now, on the instant, to put forth 
their solemn protest against the prosecution of this 
unnatural war. ... If the Union is to be riven 
asunder by the mad policy of Mr. Lincoln, all they 
have to do is to encourage him in the war which he 
has commenced. No one doubts, we apprehend, 
the ability of the Confederate States to defend them- 
selves against any force which Mr. Lincoln may send 
to attack them. But this calamity should be averted 
before it spreads and takes in, as it will, the border 
free States, as well as the slave States." 

The Columbia Statesman, edited by another emi- 
nent conservative, William F. Switzler, was equally 
outspoken. It said on the 15th of April : 

" Let them (the border States) stand as a wall of 
fire between the belligerent extremes, and with their 
strong arms and potential counsel keep them apart. 
Let them stand pledged, as they now are, to resist 
any attempt at coercion, plighting their faith, as we 
do not hesitate to plight the faith of Missouri, that 
if the impending war of the Northern States against 
the Southern shall, in defiance of our solemn protest 
and warning actually occur (which God in his mercy 
forefend !) we shall stand by Virginia and Kentucky 
and our Southern sisters — sharing their dangers, and 
abiding their fortunes and destiny — in driving back 



146 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

from their borders the hostile feet of Northern in- 
vaders. (9/ the South, we ^re for the South." 

The Republican, commenting the next day (April 
16) on the President's proclamation, said : 

" We make no doubt that there are fanatics, and 
fools, and vagabonds enough in the North, who if 
collected together, might make a good-sized army in 
point of numbers ; but how far they will be ready to 
encounter the dangers of a march through any of 
the border slave States of the Union is a question 
which admits of easy solution. Not one of those 
States, whether in or out of the Union, will ever 
permit an army, mustered in the free States, to pass 
over its territory with the design of invading cither 
of the States now in rebellion against the Federal 
Government. If Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania 
wishes to test it, let him put himself at the head of 
his troops and attempt to march through Virginia. 

"And so, Mr. Lincoln may as well understand at 
once, will it be with all the hordes that he may send 
into the field for this purpose. Their track will be 
marked with their own blood, shed by the people of 
the slave States, in defence of their own territory, 
and of what they conceive to be the rights of the 
South, and in anticipation that the same fate is in- 
tended for themselves, if this war shall be successful. 

" We need not wait for the answer of the Governor 
of Missouri to this demand upon the State for her 



TJic A rscnal. 1 47 

quota of troops. The people are ready to respond 
noiv^ that they will not contribute one regiment, nor 
one company for any such purpose. They will not 
make war upon the South, nor aid in the attempt to 
retake Fort Sumter, or any other fort in the posses- 
sion of any one of the States, which have asserted 
their independence. ' 

Governor Jackson had never wavered in his deter- 
mination to place Missouri on the side of the South 
in the impending war, and had done and was still 
doing all that could possibly be done with the in- 
significant means at his command to prepare the 
State for hostilities. As soon after the adjourn- 
ment of the General Assembly as his duties at the 
capital would permit, he had gone to St. Louis to 
confer with General Frost and others as to what was 
best to be done. At the conferences which they 
held some of the most active Secessionists of the 
city were present. Among them were John A. 
Brownlee, President of the Police Board, Judge Wil- 
liam M. Cooke, and Captains Greene and Duke. 
They all agreed that the most important and the 
first thing to be done was to seize the arsenal, so as 
to obtain the means for at once arming and equip- 
ping the State Militia. How this could be done 
was to be shown by General Frost in a memorial 
which he promised to draw up forthwith and pre- 
sent to the Governor. 



148 The Fight for Missouri. 

Events moved more rapidly than any one antici- 
pated, and General Frost had not yet completed his 
memorial^ when the fall of Fort Sumter changed the 
aspect of affairs, and compelled him to consider other 
matters in connection with the seizure of the ar- 
senal. Consequently on the 15th of April he sub- 
mitted to the Governor, with the indorsement of 
Mr. Brownlee, a written memorandum, in which he 
pointed out the strategic importance of St. Louis, 
and the fact that Lyon had not only greatly 
strengthened the defences of the arsenal, but was 
erecting batteries and mounting heavy siege guns 
and mortars with which to command the river ap- 
proaches to the city, and the city itself, and would 
soon have St. Louis at his mercy, and be able to 
dictate the course of the State. 

" I fully appreciate," he went on to say, "the very 
delicate position occupied by your Excellency, and 
do not expect you to take any action, or to do any- 
thing that is not legal and proper to be done, under 
the circumstances, but I would nevertheless suggest 
the following as both legal and proper." 

1. Convene the General Assembly at once. 

2. Send an agent to the South to procure mortars 
and siege guns. 

3. Prevent the garrisoning of the United States 
arsenal at Liberty. 

4. Warn the people of Missouri " that the Presi- 



The Arsenal. 149 

dent has acted illegally in calling out troops, thus 
arrogating to himself the war-making power, and 
that they are, therefore, by no means bound to 
give him aid or comfort in his attempt to subjugate 
by force of arms a people who are still free, but, on 
the contrary, should prepare themselves to maintain 
all their rights as citizens of Missouri." 

5. Order him (Frost) " to form a military camp 
of instruction at or near the city of St. Louis; to 
muster military companies into the service of the 
State ; and to erect batteries and do all things neces- 
sary and proper to be done in order to maintain the 
peace, dignity, and sovereignty of the State." 

6. Order Colonel Bowen to report with his com- 
mand to him (Frost) for duty. 

It was intended that the camp of instruction 
should be established on the river bluffs below the 
arsenal in such position that, with the aid of the 
siege guns and mortars which were to be brought 
from the South, Frost, and his brigade reinforced 
by Bowen's command and by volunteers would be 
able to force Lyon to surrender the arsenal and all 
its stores to the State. 

While considering these matters the Governor re- 
ceived (April 16) the requisition of the Secretary of 
War for four regiments of infantry — Missouri's quota 
of the seventy-five thousand men called for by the 
President. To this requisition he replied (April 17): 



K 



150 T/ic FigJit for Missouri. 

"Your dispatch of the 13th instant making a call 
upon Missouri for four regiments of men for imme- 
diate service, has been received. There can be, I 
apprehend, no doubt but these men are intended 
to form a part of the President's army to make war 
upon the people of the seceded States. Your requi- 
sition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, 
and revolutionary in its objects, inhuman and dia- 
bolical, and cannot be complied with. Not one man 
will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on such 
an unholy crusade." 
\\ Commenting upon this reply the next day the 

Republican said : " Nobody expected any other re- 
sponse from him, and the people of Missouri will in- 
dorse it. They may not approve the early course of 
the Southern States, but they denounce and defy the 
action of Mr. Lincoln in proposing to call out seventy- 
five thousand men for the purpose of coercing the 
seceding States. Whatever else may happen, he 
gets no men from the Border States to carry on 
such a war." 

On the same day that the Governor refused to 
comply with the requisition for troops, he sent Cap- 
tains Greene and Duke to Montgomery, with an 
autograph letter to the President of the Confede- 
rate States, requesting him to furnish those ofificers 
with the siege guns and mortars which General 
Frost wanted for the proposed attack upon the ar- 



The Arsenal. 151 

senal; and Judge William M. Cooke was sent to 
Virginia upon a similar errand. 

He also summoned the General Assembly to 
meet at Jefferson City, on the 2d of May, " for 
the purpose of enacting such measures as might be 
deemed necessary and proper for the more perfect 
organization and equipment of the militia, and to 
raise the money, and provide such other means as 
might be required to place the State in a proper 
attitude of defence." 

To have ordered General Frost to establish a 
military camp of instruction at St. Louis, and 
given him the extraordinary powers which he asked 
for, would have been too open a defiance of the 
United States Government, and would have also 
disclosed prematurely the purpose of the encamp- 
ment, and justified Lyon in taking whatever meas- 
ures h2 pleased to prevent the accomplishment of 
that purpose. The Governor, therefore, adopted 
the more prudent and strictly legal expedient of 
ordering the commanding ofificers of the several 
militia districts of the State to assemble their 
respective commands, in obedience to a law enacted 
in 1858, at some convenient place, each within his 
own district, on the 3d of May, and to go with them 
into encampment for six days, to the end that the 
officers and men might attain a greater degree of 
efficiency in drill and discipline. This order of 



152 The Fight for Missouri. 

course authorized General P^rost to establish his 
camp wherever he pleased within the city or county 
of St. Louis. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Bowen was then ordered to 
disband the South-west Battalion (which was still 
guarding the western counties of the State against 
marauders from Kansas), with the exception of a 
light battery and one company of mounted rifle- 
men, and to report v.'ith these and all ofiflcers and 
men belonging to the St. Louis Militia District, to 
General Frost, at his encampment in St. Louis. 

The United States arsenal at Liberty, in the 
western part of the State, had already been taken 
(April 2c) by the Secessionists, and its munitions of 
war, among which were four brass guns, had been 
appropriated to their own use. 

The plans of Governor Jackson and General Frost 
for the capture of the arsenal came to the knowl- 
edge of General Harney almost as soon as they were 
formed, and on the i6th of April he wrote to Gen- 
eral Scott : 

" The arsenal buildings and grounds are com- 
pletely commanded by the hills immediately in 
their rear, and within easy range, and I learn from 
sources which I consider reliable that it is the in- 
tention of the Executive of this State to cause 
batteries to be erected on these hills, and also upon 
the island opposite to the arsenal. I am further in- 



The Arsenal. 153 

formed that should such batteries be erected, it is 
contemplated by the State authorities, in the event 
of the secession of the State from the Union, to de- 
mand the surrender of the arsenal. 

'■'■ The command at the arsenal at present consists 
of nine officers and about four hundred and thirty 
enlisted men. . . . While this force would prob- 
ably be able to resist successfully an assaulting party 
greatly superior to itself in numbers, it could not 
withstand the fire of batteries situated as above in- 
dicated. Under these circumstances, I respectfully 
ask instructions for my guidance." 

Lyon did not ask, or wait for, instructions. He 
wrote that very day (April 16) by a trustworthy mes- 
senger to Governor Yates of Illinois and asked 
him to obtain authority from Washington to hold 
in readiness for service at St. Louis the six regi- 
ments which Illinois had been called upon to furnish. 
There were, he said, quarters for 3,000 men at Jef- 
ferson Barracks, and 1,000 or 2,000 could be quar- 
tered at the arsenal. He also suggested to Gov- 
ernor Yates that, as the arms at the arsenal were 
the main object of the threatened attack upon that 
post, it might be well for him to make requisition 
for a large supply of arms, and get them shipped 
thence to Springfield. Governor Yates submitted 
the matter immediately to the President, and was 



154 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

on the 20th of April instructed to send two or 
three regiments of the Ilhnois quota " to support 
the garrison of the St. Louis arsenal." Lyon was, 
at the same time, ordered to equip these troops 
with arms, accoutrements, and ammunition, "and 
moreover to issue ten thousand additional stands 
of arms and accoutrements to the agent of the 
Governor of Illinois, together with a corresponding 
amount of ammunition." 

Blair returned from Washington to St. Louis on 
the i/th of April. He comprehended the situation 
clearly, and acted with his accustomed wisdom, 
boldness, and decision. By his advice Colonel 
Pritchard and other anti-secession officers of Frost's 
Brigade resigned their commissions, and were fol- 
lowed out of that organization by all the positive 
Union men. On the 19th he telegraphed to the 
Secretary of War : " Send order by telegraph at 
once for mustering men into service to Captain N. 
Lyon. It will then be surely executed, and we will 
fill your requisition" (that which had been made 
upon Missouri for four regiments) " in two days. 
Relieve Hagner. Answer immediately." 

He had already procured from the War Depart- 
ment an order placing five thousand stand of arms at 
the disposal of Lyon for arming " loyal citizens " — 
that is to say the Home Guards — in case of necessity, 
and now hastened, by his counsels and encourage- 



The A rscnal. 1 5 rj 

ment, the recruitment of the four regiments which 
he had tendered to the Government, and which he 
was resolved to have ready by the time that the 
order for mustering them into the service could be 
received. An incident which occurred at this time 
came opportunely to his aid. 

Lyon, with that utter disregard of the mere letter 
of the law, which was one of his most marked char- 
acteristics, had for the better security of the arsenal 
and also for the convenience of the men, occupied 
with his patrols the streets adjacent to the arsenal. 
This was a clear violation of the city ordinances, 
and a direct interference with the duties of the 
Board of Police Commissioners. The Board com- 
plained of it to Captain Lyon, and demanded that 
he should obey the laws. He refused to comply. 
As the Board could not enforce his obedience, the 
matter was referred to General Harney. The 
Commissioners at the same time protested against 
the issue of United States arms by Lyon to men 
not in the military service, as these men might 
thereby be made dangerous to the peace of the 
city, which it was the duty of the Board to main- 
tain. 

Harney immediately (April i8th) ordered Lyon to 
withdraw his patrols into the limits of the arsenal, 
and forbade him to issue arms to any one without 
his own (Harney's) previously obtained sanction. 



156 The Fight for Missouri. 

This determined Blair to demand the removal of 
Harney from the command of the Department of 
the West, and he accordingly wrote the following 
letter (April 19th) to his brother, Judge Montgomery 
Blair, Postmaster-general, and forwarded it by a 
special messenger : 

" Dr. Hazlitt will hand you this letter. He goes 
to Washington for the purpose of urging the re- 
moval of General Harney from this post, and giving 
us some one to command who will not obstruct or- 
ders of the Government intended for our assistance. 
Harney has issued orders, at the instance of the 
Secessionists, refusing to allow us to have the guns 
which the Government had ordered to be given 
to us. We also want an order to Captain Lyon 
to swear in the four regiments assigned to Missouri. 
If you will send General Wool, or some one who 
is not to be doubted, to take command of this dis- 
trict, and designate an officer to swear in our volun- 
teers ; and arm the rest of our people who are will- 
ing to act as a civic or home guard, I think that we 
shall be able to hold our ground here. I consider 
these matters of vital importance, . . . and ask 
you to see Cameron (Secretary of War), immedi- 
ately, in regard to the business." 

The seizure of the United States arsenal at Lib- 
erty hastened the action of the Secretary of War 
upon Blair's requests. Harney was (April 21) re- 



The Arsenal. 157 

lieved of the command of the Department of the 
West and ordered to repair to Washington city and 
report to the General-in-chief. On the same day 
I.yon was instructed to " immediately execute the 
order previously given to arm loyal citizens, to pro- 
tect the public property, and execute the laws," 
and v;as also ordered to " muster into the service 
the four regiments which the Governor had refused 
to furnish." 

These orders were received at St. Louis on the 
23d of April. Harney relinquished the command 
of the department the same day, and left the next 
for Washington city. The command was to devolve 
upon the senior officer in the department ; but Cap- 
tain Lyon, strange to say, acted and was recog- 
nized by the Government as commanding the de- 
partment. 

He proceeded quickly to organize the four regi- 
ments, and, while doing this, sent away from St. 
Louis all the surplus munitions of war which were 
still there. This last was done on the night of the 
26th of April, when the steamer City of Alton, drop- 
ping unnoticed down to the arsenal, took the arms 
and other munitions aboard, and transferred them 
to Illinois. This ended the contest for the arsenal. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CAMP JACKSO^^ 

Douglas and the Northern Democrats Declare for the Union — The 
North Unanimous — Missouri Threatened on Three Sides by Fed- 
eral Armies, and St. Louis full of Federal Soldiers — The Border 
States Hesitate — The Confederacy Does Nothing — Missouri Help- 
less and Submissive — The Governor still Resolute — He Pur- 
chases Arms and Powder — Camp Jackson— Lyon Authorized to 
Enlist Ten Thousand Men and to Proclaim Martial Law in St. 
Louis — Elected Brigadier-General of the Llome Guards — Arms 
from the Confederacy taken to Camp Jackson — Lyon Visits the 
Camp in Disguise — Capture of Camp Jackson and the State 
Troops — Rioting and Bloodshed — The General Assembly Enacts 
the Military Bill and Confers Dictatorial Powers on the Govetnor — 
A Panic in St. Louis — Harney Resumes Command and Estab- 
lishes Order in the City — Missourians See the Danger cf Seceding 
and Begin to Submit. 

The enthusiasm of the Southern Rights' people 
of Missouri quickly subsided in view of the una- 
nimity with which the North was responding to the 
President's call for troops, and in contemplation of 
the dangers which they would have to encounter 
who should dare to take up arms against the Federal 
Government. 

The North had become united, while the South 
was still divided. For more than a generation the 
Democrats of the North had stood bv the South 



Camp Jackson. 159 

with a constancy and a courage that deserve all 
praise. In obedience to the Constitution, which 
they revered, and for the sake of the Union which 
they loved, they had maintained the rights of 
slave-holders under the Constitution long after the 
enjoyment of those rights had come into conflict with 
the humane spirit of the age and with the civiliza- 
tion of the North ; they had maintained those rights 
even when they led to the enactment of a law whose 
requirements were abhorrent to their feelings ; and 
they had continued to maintain them even when 
the South, appealing to those rights, broke the 
compact whereby a part of the national domain had 
been consecrated to freedom forever. They had 
stood by the South even then ; and throughout all 
the savage struggle for Kansas, and during the 
Presidential election of i860, and until they had 
themselves been swept out of power in every non- 
slave-holding State because of their obedience to 
the Constitution, and their friendship for the South. 
And even after South Carolina and other States 
had seceded, they still felt kindly towards them, 
and sought to bring them back into the Union, not 
by force, but by assuring to their people the enjoy- 
ment of every right to which they could justly lay 
claim under the Constitution. But when the South, 
in the exercise of the right of secession or of revo- 
lution or whatever else one may choose to call it, 



i6o TJie Fight for Missouri. 

established a separate government and took up 
arms against the Union, they could no longer stand 
by it, but rallied, as they ought to have done, under 
the flag of their own country. 

That the North was thoroughly united, Missouri- 
ans did not have to look far to see. Just across the 
river, that State with which their own was most 
closely bound, not only by geographical contiguity, 
but by community of origin, by common interests, 
by daily intercourse, and by every tie which holds 
two States together, was rushing to arms in re- 
sponse to the appeals of her Douglas, no less than 
to the call of her Lincoln, and was assembling armies 
all along the eastern boundary of Missouri ; while 
on her northern border Iowa was gathering her 
volunteers to attack her, if she should venture to 
rebel against the Government ; and on her western 
frontier the free-State men of Kansas were mus- 
tering under the leadership of desperadoes like 
Montgomery, and of soldiers like Dietzler, to renew 
on the soil of Missouri their bitter war against the 
" border ruffians " of the South. The Government 
vv'as also concentrating its regulars at Fort Leaven- 
worth under Sturgis and Steele, within sight of the 
richest and most populous counties of the State : 
and Blair and Lyon had at St. Louis more than 
five hundred regulars, and five thousand well armed 
volunteers, many of them veterans. Worse than all, 



Camp Jackson. i6r 

the State was divided against herself, and one-fourth 
of her own people were ready to take up arms 
against their Governor ; who, to resist all these 
gathering armies, had no troops but Frost's frac- 
tional brigade, many of whose officers and men 
would throv/ down their arms rather than use them 
against the Union ; and a fev/ widely scattered com- 
panies of militia, some of which were composed 
chiefly of " loyal " men. 

The Southern Rights' men of Missouri saw all 
this, and that there was no one to help them if they 
should resist the Government. Their own State 
seemed to be powerless. The Confederacy had 
shown no disposition to aid them. Virginia had 
seceded, but North Carolina and Tennessee were 
hesitating; Arkansas still clung to the Union, Mary- 
land had been subjugated, and Kentucky was about 
to submit without striking a blow, without even 
raising her arm to strike. To resist, thus circum- 
stanced, the Federal Government, was to provoke 
its wrath ; to involve their State in civil war ; to 
ruin their own fortunes ; to impoverish their families ; 
and to expose themselves to all the hazards of war. 
What could they do ? The RcpiLhlican which felt 
as they felt, advised them to do that which they 
wanted to do. Like them, it had been defiant on 
the i8th of April; like them it was submissive on 
the 22d. Missouri, it now said, must take her 



1 62 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

stand, not with South, but with Kentucky : " Let 
us take the same position that Kentucky has 
taken — that of armed neutrality. Let us declare 
that no military force levied in other States, shall 
be allowed to pass through our State, or camp 
upon our soil. Let us demand of the opposing sec- 
tions to stop further hostile operations until reason 
can be appealed to in Congress, and before the 
people ; and when that fails it will be time enough 
for us to take up arms. Why should we, all unpre- 
pared, rush out of the Union, to find a doubt- 
ful and reluctant reception in the Confederate 
States?" 

As soon as the Governor learned that the arms 
with which he had been hoping to equip the State 
troops had been removed from the arsenal, he di- 
rected General Harding, the Quarter-master Gen- 
eral, to proceed to St. Louis, and procure for the 
State all the arms and ammunition that he could 
find in that city. That officer had in February 
reported to the Governor that the only munitions 
of war which the State owned, except a few muskets 
in the hands of the militia, were two 6-pounder 
guns, without limbers or caissons ; about one thou- 
sand muskets ; forty sabres ; and fifty-eight swords. 
The latter were, he said, of an antique Roman 
pattern and "would not be as useful in war as so 
many bars of soap." In St. Louis he now pur- 



Camp Jackson. 163 

chased, partly by force, several hundred hunting 
rifles, some carnp and garrison equipage, and about 
seventy tons of gunpowder ; all which were shipped 
to Jefferson City on the 7th of May under guard of 
Captain Kelly's company, detailed for that duty by 
General Frost. 

Though the removal of the arms from the arsenal 
had taken away the motive which caused the Gov- 
ernor to order the militia into camp at St. Louis, 
it was determined to hold that encapment, never- 
theless. The intention of holding it on the hills 
near the arsenal, was, however, abandoned. For to 
camp there now would be an idle threat at best, 
and besides, and this was a still more potent reason, 
those very hills had been quietly occupied by Lyon 
with both infantry and artillery. Frost, therefore, 
selected a camp in a wooded valley, known as Lindell 
Grove, near the intersection of Olive Street and 
Grand Avenue, in the western part of the city, and 
called it Camp Jackson, in honor of the Governor. 
And there his brigade, aggregating a little more 
than seven hundred men, went into encampment on 
Monday, the 6th of May. 

Besides the officers and the men of the brigade, 
there were a number of young men in the camp, who 
had come from all quarters of the State to learn 
something of the art of war, and to take part in any 
hostile movement vv-hich Frost mieht undertake. 



164 The FigJit for JSIlssouri. 

From this little force one company. Captain Kelly's, 
was detached on the 7th and ordered to Jefferson 
City, leaving Frost about six hundred and thirty 
men. 

Blair and Lyon, who had been kept well informed 
as to everything that the Governor and Frost were 
doing, had been meanwhile quietly getting ready to 
capture the camp, together with Frost and all his 
command. No longer obstructed by Harney, they 
had, by the 30th of April, mustered into the service 
five regiments of infantry, all of them well armed 
and fully equipped. On that day (April 30) Lj'on 
wrote to the Secretar}' of \\"ar : " The State is 
doubtless getting ready to attack the Government 
troops with artillery. I have sent three volunteer 
companies with Captain Totten's battery to occupy 
buildings outside of the arsenal, hired for this pur- 
pose both to give them shelter and to occupy com- 
manding positions which the Secessionists had in- 
tended to occupy themselves, and upon which they 
openly avowed that they would plant siege bat- 
teries to reduce this place, the arsenal. This exas- 
perates them and has given rise to a singular corre- 
spondence which, when convenient, I will lay before 
the War Department." 

On the same day (April 30'! the following extra- 
ordinary paper was transmitted to St. Louis, ad- 
dressed by " Simon Cameron, Sccretar\- of \\'ar,'" to 



CiDHp Jackson. 165 

" Captain Nathaniel Lyon, commanding- Depart- 
ment of the West." 

"The President of the United States directs that 
you enroll in the military service of the United 
States loyal citizens of St. Louis and vicinity, not 
exceeding, with those heretofore enlisted, ten thou- 
sand in number, for the purpose of maintaining the 
authority of the United States and for the the pro- 
tection of the peaceable inhabitants of Missouri, 
and you will, if deemed necessary for that purpose 
by yourself and Messrs. Oliver D. Filley, John How, 
James O. Broadhead. Samuel T. Glover, J. J. 
Witzig, and Francis P. Blair, Jr.. proclaim martial 
law in the city of St. Louis." 

This remarkable document was indorsed, " It is 
revoIutionar\- times, and therefore I do not object 
to the irregularity of this. \V. S." (Winfield Scott.) 
It bore this indorsement besides, " Approved April 
30. 1 861. A. Lincoln," 

Upon receiving this authorit}- L)'on mustered into 
the service on the 7th and 8th of Ma}' four more 
regiments of infantry, which, with a fifth that was 
mustered in on the i ith, constituted what became 
known as the United States Reserve Corps, or Home 
Guards. The five regiments that had been organ- 
ized in April were known as Missouri \'olunteers. 
The First Regiment of ?kIissouri Volunteers was 
composed largeh' of natives of this countr\- and 



1 66 The Fight for Missouri. 

Irishmen. Francis P. Blair, Jr., was its colonel, 
George L. Andrews, its lieutenant-colonel ; and John 
M. Schofield (now major-general), its major. The 
other nine regiments were composed almost exclu- 
sively of Germans. The officers of the five regi- 
ments of Missouri Volunteers urged Blair to accept 
the command of that brigade, but he insisted upon 
their electing Lyon instead, and of course, his 
wishes were obeyed. Lyon was thenceforth known 
as Brigadier-general Lyon, though he was not com- 
missioned as such till the 17th of May, to rank from 
the 1 8th. Chester Harding was made adjutant-gen- 
eral of the brigade. Captain Thomas W. Sweeny 
of the Second Infantry was chosen brigadier-gen- 
eral of the brigade composed of the five regiments 
of Home Guards, and was commissioned as such on 
the 20th of May. He had served in the Mexican 
War as captain of a company of New York volun- 
teers, and at the close of that war had entered the 
regular army. 

Blair and Lyon were now ready to strike. They 
had more than 7,000 well armed men, and within 
two miles of them lay encamped nearly all the 
militia of the State — less than 700 men. Capture 
these men, and take away their arms, and the Gov- 
ernor would have no organized force, no arms, noth- 
ing with which to resist the occupation of the State 
by Federal troops, and within a week they would 



Camp Jackson. 1 67 

hang " the traitor," or drive him out of the State. 
There was no time to waste, for not only would 
the mihtia disperse to their homes on the last day 
of the week, but by that time Harney would be 
back in St. Louis, and again in command of the de- 
partment, and nothing would then be done to harm 
the Secessionists. It was therefore agreed on the 
7th of May between Blair, Lyon, Harding, and 
Franklin A. Dick, to take the camp at once. 

A thing now happened which gave them a good 
pretext to do what they wanted. Such things are 
always happening to those who know how to take 
advantage of them. 

It will be remembered that Governor Jackson 
had sent Captains Duke and Greene to Mont- 
gomery for siege guns and mortars, with which 
Frost was to take the arsenal. On reaching the 
Confederate capital they laid their requests before 
the President and his Cabinet, and explained to 
them the purpose for which they wanted the guns 
and mortars. Mr. Davis, who had, at one time, 
been stationed at St. Louis, and was familiar with 
the ground, approved the plan, and ordered the 
commandant of the Baton Rouge Arsenal to sup- 
ply the requisition. He also wrote to the Governor 
of Louisiana, and asked him to render such assist- 
ance as he could to the Missouri officers. 

To Governor Jackson he wrote (April 23) : 



1 68 T]ic Fight for Missojiri. 

" . . . After learning, as well as I could, from 
the gentlemen accredited to me, what was most 
needful for the attack on the arsenal, I have di- 
rected that Captains Greene and Duke should be 
furnished with two 12-pounder howitzers and two 
32-pounder guns, with the proper ammunition for 
each. These, from the commanding hills, will be 
effective against the garrison, and to break the en- 
closing walls of the place. I concur with you as to 
the great importance of capturing the arsenal and 
securing its supplies, rendered doubly important by 
the means taken to obstruct your commerce, and 
render you unarmed victims of a hostile invasion. 

" We look anxiously and hopefully for the day 
when the star of Missouri shall be added to the 
constellation of the Confederate States of America. 

" With the best wishes, I am, 

''Very respectfully yours, 

" Jefferson Davis." 

The arms and ammunition were procured at 
Baton Rouge and shipped to St. Louis as merchan- 
dise, and consigned to well-known Union men. At 
St. Louis they were turned over (May 8) to Major 
Shaler, of Frost's Brigade, and taken to Camp Jack- 
son. The fact was made known to Blair and Lyon 
as soon as the thing was done, and they determined 
to act at once. The next day Lyon, disguised as 
an old woman, drove through the camp, and 



Camp Jackson. 169 

satisfied himself, by personal inspection, that the 
men had in their possession arms and ammunition 
which had been taken from the United States 
Arsenal at Baton Rouge, and which, therefore, right- 
fully belonged, in his opinion, to the Federal Gov- 
ernment. Returning to the arsenal, he summoned 
the Committee of Safety to meet him there at 
once, and told them that it was " necessary to seize 
the camp, and every man in it, and to hold them as 
prisoners of v/ar." Blair, Broadhead, Filley, and 
Witzig, concurred with him; but Glover and How 
objected that the camp had a legal existence for 
six days, and should not be attacked during that 
time ; that those in command of it recognized the 
authority of the United States Government and 
kept the national flag flying over the encampment, 
and had not committed any breach of the peace ; 
and that, if there was any property there of the 
United States, the proper way to reach it was 
through a writ of replevin, which the United States 
Marshal could enforce, if necessary, by calling on 
General Lyon for troops. 

Lyon replied that he knew the camp to be a nest 
of traitors ; that the Legislature was in secret 
session, and might have already put a new military 
law in operation, or certainly would do so in a day 
or two ; that advices from all parts of the State 
were discouraging to the Union men ; that the 



i^o The Fight for Missou7-i. 

rebels were gathering strength ; that Harney would 
arrive on Sunday, and no one could tell what he 
would do; and that Camp Jackson must, therefore, 
be taken forthwith. Glover and How yielded at 
last, with the understanding that the United States 
Marshal should head the column which was to 
march against the camp. Lyon had, nevertheless, 
made up his own mind to use no subterfuge. He 
meant "to capture the camp and the men in it, 
both the officers and the enlisted men, with all its 
material of war ; to demand a surrender, with his 
men in line of battle and his cannon in position, and 
if the demand Avere not complied with at once to 
fight for it." And he got ready to do this the next 
morning Friday the loth of May. 

Frost, who had during the last day or two heard 
frequent rumors that Lyon was going to capture 
the camp, received positive information Friday 
morning that the attack was to be made that day. 
He thereupon addressed to Lyon a letter in which 
he positively denied that cither he, or any part of 
his command, had any hostile intentions towards 
the United States Government, or its property, or 
representatives. " I trust," said he, " after this ex- 
plicit statement, we may be able by fully under- 
standing each other to keep far from our borders 
the misfortunes which unhappily afflict our common 
country." This communication was sent to Lyon 



Cajiip Jackson. 1 71 

through Colonel Bowen. Lyon refused to receive 
it, and immediately put his column in motion. After 
surrounding the camp he sent one of his st;iff to Frost 
with a demand for the immediate and unconditional 
surrender of his whole command. As his force was 
more than ten times as great as Frost's, the latter 
had to surrender. Both Grant and Sherman saw all 
these things. 

The militia having stacked their arms, were formed 
into line, and conducted out of the camp on their 
way to the arsenal. They had moved but a short 
distance when they were halted, and kept standing 
in a line parallel with and a few yards from Olive 
Street, which was occupied by Lyon's troops. Dur- 
ing the halt, which lasted several hours, great 
numbers of men, women, and children gathered 
around the prisoners and their captors. They were, 
of course, intensely agitated and, as the excitement 
grew, began to jeer at and abuse •' the Dutch Black- 
guards " (so called in derision because one of the 
German companies called itself die Sclnvartzc Garde). 
Suddenly a few shots were fired, and were followed 
almost immediately by volley after volley, extending 
in regular succession down the line of troops, until 
apparently a full regiment had thus fired by com- 
pany. Twenty-eight people lay dead or mortally 
wounded. Among them were three prisoners and 
an infant in tlie arms of its mother. The march was 



1/2 The Fight for Missouri. 

quickly resumed, and the prisoners were safely se- 
cured within the grounds of the arsenal. The next 
night (May^ ii) all of them except Captain Emmett 
Macdonald were released on their parole not to bear 
arms against the United States. Macdonald refused 
to give his parole, but was, after many adventures, 
released through the intervention of the courts. 

The General Assembly had met on the 2d of 
May. The Governor, after calling its attention to 
the state of the country, repeated, what he had 
often said, that the interests and sympathies of Mis- 
souri were identical with those of the other slave- 
holding States, and that she must therefore unite 
her destiny with theirs ; that while she had no war 
to prosecute, she would be faithless to her honor, 
and recreant to her duty, if she hesitated a moment 
to make the amplest preparation for the protection 
of her people against all assailants ; and that, there- 
fore, the General Assembly should " place the State 
at the earliest practicable moment in a complete 
state of defence." 

Both Houses went into secret session, and began 
to consider bills to carry out these recommenda- 
tions. They had, however, made but little prog- 
ress, when, during the afternoon of the lOth of 
May, the Governor, entering hastily the Hall of 
Representatives, informed som.e of the members 
that Lyon had captured Camp Jackson, and was 



Camp Jackson. , 173 

holding the State troops as prisoners of war. The 
MiHtary Bill was under discussion at the mo- 
ment, its passage resisted at every step by the op- 
ponents of secession. In an instant all resistance 
gave way and within less than fifteen minutes the 
bill had passed both Houses and was awaiting the 
Governor's signature. 

Towards midnight all Jefferson City was aroused 
by the ringing of the church bells. The Legisla- 
ture met and was notified by the Governor that 
he had been informed that " two of Mr. Blair's 
regiments were on the way to the capital." In the 
midst of the wildest excitement an act was rushed 
through both Houses authorizing " the Governor to 
take such measures as he might deem necessary or 
proper to repel invasion or put down rebellion," and 
$30,000 were appropriated to enable him to execute 
the dictatorial powers thus conferred upon him. 
Other acts intended to prepare the State for war 
were also introduced. 

The Governor meanv/hile sent detachments of 
men in all haste to hold the railroad bridges over 
the Gasconade and the Osage, over which " Mr. 
Blair's two regiments" would have to pass on their 
way from St. Louis. In the excitement of the hour 
the detachment which was sent to guard the Osage 
Bridge set it on fire and partially destroyed it. 

The powder which the Governor had purchased 



174 * • The Fight for Missouri. 

in St. Louis and stored at Jefferson City was hur- 
riedly removed to various hiding places, more or less 
remote ; and the funds in the State treasury were 
secreted. Every man armed himself as best he 
could with shot-guns, rifles, sabres, and ancient 
swords, and there was much talk of " resisting the 
invaders." The story is told of one ardent patriot, 
a " cockade man " (a cockade on the hat of a Seces- 
sionist meant, in those days, what a chip on the 
shoulder of an Irishman is supposed to mean when 
his blood is up), who declared that he was going to 
the Moreau, all alone if no one would go with him, 
and would fight Lyon and his " Dutch cut-throats " 
there, all by himself. It is said, however, that he 
did not go to the Moreau either then or the next 
day, and, what is more, that he never left home 
during all the war. 

While these things were going on at Jefferson 
City, the excitement at St. Louis grew apace. Dur- 
ing the afternoon of the loth and the evening of 
that day the streets were crowded with anxious 
and angry people. The capture of Camp Jackson ; 
the detention of Frost and his men as prisoners of 
war ; the cruel shooting down of unoffending wo- 
men and children by Lyon and his German Home 
Guards, had aroused Americans and Irish to a state 
of frenzy. Towards morning the crowds grew 
denser and more dangerous, particularly in the cen- 



Camp Jackson. 175 

tral part of the city, where the people of native birth 
chiefly-resided, and, as the day advanced, evinced 
a determination to put an end to the domination 
of the Germans. 

Late in the afternoon as a regiment of Home 
Guards was returning from the arsenal to its barracks 
in the northern part of the city, it encountered near 
Walnut Street a crowd, which had gathered there to 
see it pass. Halting for a moment as if to resent 
the hooting of the multitude, it had resumed its 
march, when some one fired a shot into its ranks. 
The head of the column turned and poured a volley 
into the crowd, and into its own rear ranks. Eight 
men were killed, two of them soldiers, and many 
were wounded. The people fled, and the regiment 
continued on its way. This occurrence inflamed 
the Germans to such a degree of fury, that they 
now made open threats to exterminate the Seces- 
sionists, and on Sunday, the 12th of May, these 
threats became so loud as to alarm the American 
population, whose only organized defenders, the 
Volunteer Militia, had been disarmed, and were 
prisoners of war. What could unarmed men do 
against Lyon and his ten thousand German soldiers 
thoroughly armed and equipped? 

The Mayor and the Police Commissioners were 
powerless. In their fright the people begged General 
Harney, who had resumed command at St. Louis, 



176 The Fight for Missouri. 

to send the Home Guards out of the city. This he 
promised to do ; but Blair soon convinced him that as 
these regiments had been enHsted to serve ivitJiin 
St. Louis, they could not be sent away. 

When the people learned that Harney could not 
send the Home Guards away, they inferred that it 
was because these regiments had revolted against 
him, and were going to carry out their threats to ex- 
terminate the " Secesh." A panic took possession 
of the city. Thousands of women and children were 
sent across the Mississippi, and other thousands were 
getting ready to follow, when Harney brought two 
companies of United States Artillery, and two com- 
panies of Regular Infantry into the city, and issued 
a proclamation wherein he pledged his " faith as a 
soldier," to preserve the public peace, and to protect 
the lives and property of the people. This wise and 
timely proceeding quieted the apprehensions of 
every one, and most of the fugitives returned to 
their homes. 



CHAPTER IX. 

BOTH SIDES rPKPARE FOR WAR. 

Harney approves the Capture of Camp Jackson — Occupies St. Louis 
— Asks for troops from Iowa and Minnesota " for Operations in 
Missouri."— Adjournment of the Legislature — Sterling Price offers 
his services to the State — Is appointed Major-General — Appoint- 
ment of Brigadier-Generals — Volunteers at Jefferson City — Mar- 
maduke — McCulIoch, and Mclntyre — Organization of the State 
Guard Begun — The Price-Harney Agreement — Dissatisfaction of 
Blair and Lyon — They procure Harney's Removal — Lyon in Com- 
mand of Missouri. 

Harney soon made it plain to every one that, 
while he was anxious to maintain peace within the 
State, and to abstain from all acts of violence, he 
was resolved to hold her faithful to the Union, and 
to compel her people to obey the laws of the United 
States. 

On the 13th of May he wrote to General Scott 
that " Captain Lyon's conduct in capturing the 
State troops " met with his own entire approval ; 
and the next day he published a Proclamation to the 
People of Missouri, in which he denounced the Mili- 
tary Bill, which had just been enacted by the 
General Assembly, as " an indirect secession ordi- 
nance ignoring even the forms resorted to by other 



178 The Fight for Missouri. 

States," and declared that, inasmuch as " its most 
material provisions were in conflict with the Con- 
stitution and laws of the United States, the act was 
itself a nullity, and not by any means to be obeyed 
by the people of Missouri," and that " in any event 
the whole power of the United States would, if 
necessary, be exerted to maintain the State in her 
present position in the Union." 

As to Camp Jackson, he said that its " main avenue 
had the name of Davis, and a principal street the 
name of Beauregard ; that a body of men " (the 
Minute Men) " had been received into the camp by 
its commander, which had been notoriously organ- 
ized in the interests of the Secessionists, the men 
openly wearing the dress and the badge distinguish- 
ing the army of the so-called Southern Confederacy; " 
and that a quantity of arms '' unlawfully taken from 
the United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge," had 
also been taken there ; that there could therefore be 
no doubt " as to the character and ultimate purpose 
of that encampment ;" and that " no government in 
the world would be entitled to respect that would 
tolerate for a moment such openly treasonable prep- 
arations." 

The proclamation closed with this remarkable dec- 
laration : 

" Disclaiming, as I do, all desire or intention to 
interfere in any way with the prerogatives of the 



BotJi Sides Prcpm-c for War. 179 

State of Missouri or with the functions of its Execu- 
tive, or other authorities, yet I regard it as my plain 
duty to express to the people in respectful but at 
the same time decided language that within the field 
and scope of my command and authority the su- 
preme law of the land must and shall be maintained, 
and that no subterfuges, whether in the form of 
legislative acts " (the Military Bill) " or otherwise, can 
be permitted to harass or oppress the good and law- 
abiding people of Missouri " (that is to say the Union 
men and Submissionists). " I shall exert my au- 
thority to protect tJicir persons and property from 
violations of every kind, and I shall deem it my duty 
to suppress all unlawful combinations of men" 
(the State Guard), " whether formed under pretext 
of military organization or otherwise." 

He had already taken military possession of the 
city of St. Louis, by stationing troops at all impor- 
tant points. 

The Republican, commenting the next day on this 
Proiuinciaincnto, and on the occupation of the city 
by Federal troops, had the courage to say, with the 
last free breath that it drew in four long years : 
" We are bound hand and foot ; chained down by 
a merciless tyranny ; are subjugated and shackled." 

Having made up his mind to subjugate the State 
of which he was a citizen and to fight against the 
people among whom he was born, and of whom he 



l8o TJic Fight for Missouri. 

was one, General Harney did not content himself 
with publishing proclamations, but began to get 
ready, like the true soldier that he was, to compel 
obedience to them. On the i/th of May he tele- 
graphed to General Scott for ten thousand stand of 
arms, "for issue to reliable Union men" in other 
counties than St. Louis, and asked that the Govern- 
ors of Iowa and Minnesota (which States were within 
the Department of the West) should be called upon 
to furnish him nine thousand men " for operations in 
Missouri." He wanted, besides, authority to enlist in 
St. Louis a regiment consisting exclusively of Irish- 
men. The scent of the blood with which the streets 
of the city were reeking, had aroused the spirit of 
" the bold dragoon," and, as in the days of his youth, 
he was eager to fight, and ready to strike whomever 
he was ordered to strike, whether it were Indian or 
Mexican, Northman or Southman, stranger or kins- 
man. 

The General Assembly had adjourned on the 15th 
of May after creating a military fund into which 
the school fund and all other available moneys of 
the State were ordered to be paid, together with 
a loan of $1,000,000, which the banks were expected 
to subscribe, and also the proceeds of $1,000,000 
State bonds, which the Governor was authorized to 
sell. 

It had also passed tinanimoiisly resolutions de- 



BotJi Sides Prepare for War. i8i 

nouncing bitterly the conduct of Blair and Lyon ; 
requesting the Governor to instantly call out the 
militia ; and declaring that " the people of Missouri 
would rally as one man, to perish, if necessary, in de- 
fending their Constitutional rights." 

The unanimity with which these resolutions were 
adopted attests the almost universal indignation and 
anger with which the capture of the State troops 
and the shooting down of unoffending men, 
women, and children had filled the hearts of the 
people of Missouri. Many who till now had never 
wavered in their fidelity to the Union, now deter- 
mined to stand with their State, and to resist the 
government of Abraham Lincoln. Conspicuous 
among these were ex-Governor Sterling Price, 
President of the State Convention, and John B. 
Clark, They both hastened to Jefferson City, and 
tendered their services to the Governor. Their ac- 
cession was hailed with unbounded delight by the 
Secessionists and it helped in a great degree to check 
the tendency to submit, which was spreading from 
St. Louis all over the State. 

Sterling Price was born of a good family in 
Prince Edward County, Virginia, in 1809. He was 
carefully educated in the schools near by, and at 
Hampden Sidney College, and afterwards attended 
the law school of one of the most eminent of Vir- 
ginia's jurists, her venerable chancellor. Creed Taylor. 



1 82 TJie FigJit for Missom-i. 

Moving with his father's family to Missouri in 183 1, 
he had resided ever since on the same farm in Chari- 
ton County. Elected to the Legislature in 1840, he 
was at once chosen Speaker of the House, a dis- 
tinction rarely conferred upon a man so young and 
wholly unused to deliberative assemblies. But he 
was a born leader of men. Tall, handsome, well 
educated and accomplished ; a gentleman of com- 
manding presence and dignified manners ; a man of 
character and worth, and richly endowed with that 
best of all mental gifts — common sense — he was also 
instinctively a parliamentarian, comprehended as by 
intuition the rules that govern legislative- bodies, 
and enforced them with promptness and vigor. 
After serving four years as Speaker, he was 
elected to Congress. But hardly had he taken his 
seat when in the spring of 1846 war was declared 
against Mexico. Resigning his place in Congress 
he returned instantly to Missouri, raised a mounted 
regiment, and led it to New Mexico, to the com- 
mand of which he had been assigned. The next 
year, the President, in recognition of his services and 
of his civic and military ability, promoted him to 
brigadier-general. At the close of the war he re- 
turned to Missouri, and in 1852 w^as elected Gov- 
ernor of the State, and occupied that office till the 
beginning of 1857. 

In i860, he had supported Douglas for the Presi- 



Both Sides Prepare for War. 183 

dency, because he was himself devoted to the 
Union, and did not like the threat of secession, 
which was involved in the candidacy of Breckin- 
ridge. In the late election of delegates to the State 
Convention he had taken ground against the seces- 
sion of Missouri, and had been elected with great 
unanimity, as he would have been, had he taken the 
contrary position, for his neighbors had unbounded 
confidence in his patriotism and good sense. He 
was made President of the Convention, and had 
throughout its entire session borne himself as a sin- 
cere friend of the Union, opposed under all circum- 
stances to its dissolution, and just as earnestly op- 
posed to making war upon the South. To this 
position he had continued to adhere even after 
the President's call for seventy-five thousand men 
to invade the South. But the attack of Blair and 
Lyon upon Camp Jackson, their capture of the 
State troops, and their killing of helpless women 
and children, aroused within him the deepest indig- 
nation, and determined him to draw his sword 
against the men who had dared to do such things, 
and against the Government which sustained them. 
I He was unquestionably the most popular man in 
Missouri. With none of Doniphan's splendid tal- 
ents and brilliant wit ; with none of Gamble's pas- 
sionless logic ; with none of Green's power in de- 
bate, and none of Rollins' persuasive speech ; with 



184 The Fight for Missouri. 

none of that rare blending of Christian graces with 
stahvart strength of mind, which gave Trusten Polk 
the victory over Benton in 1856 ; with none of Ed- 
ward Bates' bland eloquence, and with little of Gover- 
nor Jackson's devotion to abstract principles, and still 
less of his fiery zeal; he was more trusted by Mis- 
sourians than any of them, more than ail of them 
noiv, when Missouri wanted a warlike leader. 

The recently enacted Military Bill provided for 
the enlistment of the Missouri State Guard, and au- 
thorized the Governor to appoint eight brigadier- 
generals to command the military districts into 
which it divided the State. The Legislature also 
empowered the Governor to appoint a major-gen- 
eral, who should have command of this entire force 
when called into active service. To this office Gen- 
eral Price was, as the Legislature intended, ap- 
pointed on the 1 8th of May. 

On the 2 1st the Governor announced the appoint- 
ment of the following brigadier-generals, Alexander 
W. Doniphan, Monroe M. Parsons, James S. Rains, 
John B. Clark, Merriwether Lewis Clark, Nathaniel 
W. Watkins, Beverly Randolph, William Y. Slack, 
and James H. McBride, all of them men of high 
character and known ability and devoted to Missouri. 
Doniphan, Parsons, M. L. Clark, and Slack had all 
distinguished themselves in the war w^ith Mexico. 
Their commissions were forthwith transmitted to 



BotJi Sides Prepare for War. 185 

all, with orders to enroll at once the men within 
their respective districts, and get them ready for 
active service. 

In all that part of the State west of Jefferson 
City, and particularly in the counties bordering on 
the Missouri (whose population was composed al- 
most entirely of Southern people), the work of en- 
rolment was pushed vigorously. Volunteers had 
indeed begun to flock to the capital as soon as it 
was seen that the Governor and the General Assem- 
bly intended to resent '' the outrages " that had been 
perpetrated at St. Louis, and that men like Sterling 
Price and John B. Clark were drawing their swords 
in defence of the State. 
( By the i8th of May more than a thousand of 
these volunteers had gathered at Jefferson City, and 
were impatiently waiting to be mustered into the 
State Guard, and to take the field under the com- 
mand of Price. Among them were some com- 
panies from Cooper brought thither by Captain Rob- 
ert McCulloch, and some from Callaway brought by 
Captain D. H. Mclntyre. The Independence Grays 
came from Jackson, with full ranks, bringing with 
them the four brass 6-pounders, which had been taken 
from the United States Arsenal at Liberty ; guns, 
which, after many strange adventures, were gallantly 
fought against the Government to which they be- 
longed. Kelly's St. Louis company was still there. 



1 86 Tlic Fight for Misscuri. 

The regiment first organized was composed of eight 

companies from Parsons' district, which embraced 

the counties adjacent to Jefferson City. It was 

known as the First Regiment of Rifles, and John 

S. Marmaduke was its colonek 

I- 

' Marmaduke was a native of Missouri, a son of one 

of her former Governors, and a nephew of Governor 
Jackson. He had graduated at West Point in 1857, 
and was a heutenant of infantry when the President 
called for troops. Resigning his commission at once, 
he began to enlist the regiment which he now of- 
fered to the State. He was a young man of very 
decided ability and a fine soldier. It is a noteworthy 
fact that he is now Governor of the State, that Mc- 
Culloch is Treasurer, that McGrath who was a pri- 
vate in Kelly's company is Secretary of State, and 
that Mclntyre was recently Attorney-General of the 
Commonwealth. 

The active preparations for war which General 
Harney was making at St. Louis, and which the 
Governor and General Price were making at Jeffer- 
son City and throughout the State, alarmed some 
very conservative citizens, who still believed that 
the neutrality of Missouri might be maintained if 
General Price and General Harney would consent 
to it. They accordingly induced General Harney 
to invite Price, in whom he and they justly had 
great confidence, to meet him at St. Louis, in order 



Both Sides Prepare for War. 187 

to ascertain whether they could not agree upon some 
plan for preventing a conflict. As the State was 
wholly unprepared for war, General Price, with the 
Governor's approval, readily accepted General Har- 
ney's invitation, and on the 2ist of May these two 
ofificers made what is known as the Price-Harney 
Agreement, wherein, avowing that the object of 
each was " to restore peace and good order to the 
people of the State in subordination to the laws of 
the General and State governments," General Price, 
as Major-General of the Missouri State Guard, un- 
dertook, with the Governor's express sanction, " to 
maintain order within the State, among the people 
thereof;" and General Harney declared that if this 
were done he could have no occasion (as he had no 
wish) to make any military movements within the 
State. 

While General Price was still in St. Louis, Gen- 
eral Harney said to him through a friend, that as 
the State Guard might come within the meaning of 
the President's proclamation requiring officers of 
th2 United States Army to disperse all armed 
bodies hostile to the supreme law of the land, he 
hoped that General Price would discover some way 
to suspend the organization of the State Guard 
until the constitutionality of the act creating it could 
be passed upon by some competent authority. 

General Price replied that he had no right to nul- 



1 88 The Fight for Missouri. 

lify or to disobey a law of the State, and could not, 
of course, suspend the organization of the State 
Guard. But upon returning to Jefferson City he or- 
dered (May 24) all of the troops which had come 
thither from other military districts to return to 
their homes, there to be organized by their respec- 
tive district commanders into companies and regi- 
ments as required by law. Captain Kelly's com- 
pany alone was excepted from the operation of this 
order. 

The action of General Harney in this matter 
gave great offence to Blair and Lyon. His inter- 
ference with their plan for overrunning the State 
immediately after the capture of Frost's Brigade, 
had already decided them to insist upon his re- 
moval from the command of the Federal forces in 
Missouri, and Blair had sent his brother-in-law 
Franklin A. Dick, and Lyon had sent Dr. Bernays, 
the editor of the Anzeigcr dcs Wcstens, to Wash- 
ington city to urge the matter upon the President. 

In a written memorandum which he gave to Dr. 
Bernays for his guidance Lyon said: "Tell him 
all about our situation here. I have no confidence 
whatever in Harney, or in Major McKinstry " 
(quarter-master of the department). " I feel that 
they are against us, and that they will throw all 
kinds of difficulties in our way. They already do 
so. I never can obtain in time what I need from 



Both Sides Prepare for War. 189 

the quarter-master's department, and all the pre- 
cautions that I take against the rebels are frustrated 
by the proceedings of General Harney. Tell the 
President to get my hands untied, and I will war- 
rant to keep this State in the Union." 

Dick reached Washington city on the i6th of May, 
and obtained, that very day, an order for the ap- 
pointment of Lyon as brigadier-general of volun- 
teers; and also persuaded the President, against the 
advice of Attorney-General Bates, Judge Gamble, 
and other influential citizens of St. Louis, to make 
an order relieving General Harney of the command 
of the Department of the West, Not wishing, 
however, to offend his attorney-general, who was a 
St. Louisian, the President directed Postmaster- 
General Montgomery Blair, a brother of Frank, to 
inclose the order to the latter with instructions that 
it was to be delivered, at his discretion, to General 
Harney ; adding, however, that it v/as " better to 
mortify Harney than endanger the lives of many 
men, and the position of Miszouri in the present con- 
flict." The President also wrote a private letter to 
Colonel Blair (May 18) saying that he was doubtful 
of the propriety of the order, and therefore wished 
him to withhold it, unless, in his judgment, the 
necessity to the contrary was very urgent. " But," 
said he, " if in your judgment it is indispensable, let 
it be so." Blair, after consulting with Lyon, decided 



1 90 TJlc Figlit for Missouri. 

to let Harney retain command until he could satisfy 
the President that he ought to be removed ; and 
straightway went to work to accomplish that result. 
Inspired by him, the Safety Committee forwarded 
to Washington city a vigorous protest (written by 
James O. Broadhead), against the continuance of 
the Price-Harney agreement (May 22). 

" It seems," they say, " to leave the Union men 
in the hands of the very power which imperils their 
safety ; " it does not repudiate secession : it im- 
pliedly recognizes the right of the State authorities 
to arm the State under the provisions of the mili- 
tary law, which law sets at defiance the Constitution 
of the United States, and the authority of the Gen- 
eral Government : it does not require the disband- 
ment of the military companies which have been 
organized under that law : and it only " puts off the 
evil day until such time as the enemy shall be better 
prepared to make resistance." It would be better, 
they said, that the General Government should 
maintain its authority by the stern enforcement of 
military rule. For its enforcement the Government 
had suf^cient troops in the State, if it would only 
instruct the commanding general to distribute them 
at various points, where they could be used to pro- 
tect loyal citizens, and to prevent the organization 
of the State Guard. 

Two days later (May 24) Blair wrote to the Sec- 



Both Sides Prepare for War. 191 

retary of War denouncing Governor Jackson as a 
"traitor;" and declaring that the agreement be- 
tween Price and Harney had disgusted himself, and 
was giving great dissatisfaction to all Union men. 
The newspapers were flooded with letters and 
telegrams from all parts of the State, giving accounts 
of " outrages " that were pretended to have been 
committed by the Secessionists, with the counte- 
nance of Governor Jackson and General Price, 
upon the " loyal " inhabitants of the State. These 
accounts were all sedulously collected, embellished, 
and multiplied, and then laid with the indorse- 
ment of " strong " men before the President ; who, 
believing them, wrote to Harney (May 27) through 
the adjutant-general that it was " his duty sum- 
marily to stop, with the force under his command, 
and siich troops as he might require from Kansas, 
loiva, and Illinois, the outrages which were being 
perpetrated on loyal citzens. The professions of 
loyalty to the Union by the State authorities of 
Missouri are not to be relied upon. They have 
already falsified their professions too often, and are 
too far committed to secession to be entitled to 
your confidence : and you can only be sure of 
their desisting from their wicked purposes, when 
it is out of their power to prosecute them. 
The a?(thority of the United States is paramount, 
and zuhencver it is apparent that a movement, ivhcther 



192 TJie Fig] it for Missouri. 

by color of State aiitJiority or not, is Jiostilc, you zuill 
not hesitate to put it doiuny 

Before these instructions reached St. Louis, Blair 
had already delivered to General Harney the order 
relieving him of the command of the Department of 
the West. In explaining his action to the President 
he wrote on the 30th of May, that he had become 
satisfied that unless the Government occupied the 
State in force without further delay, the Union men 
would be crushed, or driven out, entirely, " and the 
State itself be completely given over to the hands 
of the rebels ; " that Harney, by reason of his agree- 
ment with Price, could do nothing ; and that it had, 
consequently, become indispensable to remove him. 

Harney, upon receiving the order, relinquished 
command of the Department (May 30), and it was 
the next day assumed by Brigadier-General Lyon. 



CHAPTER X. 

LYON DECLARES WAR. 

Blair and Lyon outline their plan of Campaign — Federal Forces in 
and around Missouri — Defenceless Condition of the State — The 
Governor and Price prepare for War — Attempts to preserve the 
Neutrality of the State — The Planters' House Conference — Lyon 
Declares War against the Stats — The Governor's Proclamation — 
He calls out the Militia — Determines to make a stand at Booneville 
and to hold the Missouri — Abandons Jefferson City and retires to 
Booneville — General Price goes to Lexington. 

There was nothing now to prevent Blair and 
Lyon from executing the plan of campaign upon 
upon which they had agreed before the capture of 
Camp Jackson. 

Blair outlined this plan to the President in the 
letter which he addressed to him on the 30th of 
May. He said therein that the blow struck at Camp 
Jackson, had '' greatly intimidated the leaders of the 
rebellion," and that if it had been followed up then, 
as he and Lyon had intended, by blows struck in 
other parts of the State, the rebellion would have 
been speedily and effectually crushed, in Missouri, at 
small cost of life and treasure ; but that under Har- 
ney's policy the Government had been losing ground 
so rapidly, and its enemies becoming so active and 
13 



194 The Fight fo?' Missouri. 

formidable, that the Union men were now in danger 
of being driven out of the State ; that to prevent 
this and to meet the force with which the Confeder- 
ates were preparing to invade the State from Arkan- 
sas and the Indian Territory, the President ought 
to authorize the enhstment in Missouri of a suf- 
ficient number of troops to hold Jefferson City, 
Lexington, St. Joseph, Hannibal, Macon City, 
Springfield, and other points, and should at the 
same time order the United States troops at Fort 
Leavenworth and the regiments that were being 
raised in Kansas to co-operate with General Lyon 
in resisting any invasion of the State from the South- 
west. "We are well able," he said, " to take care of 
this State without assistance from elsewhere, if au- 
thorized to raise a sufficient force within the State ; 
and after that work is done we can take care of the 
Secessionists from the Arkansas line to the Gulf, 
along the west shore of the Mississippi." 

Lyon, less confident than Blair that the Union 
men of Missouri could hold the State without the 
aid of a force from other States, urged the Secre- 
tary of War also to direct the Governors of Illinois 
and Iowa to furnish him the troops which they had 
been instructed to send to Harney, and said that if 
this were done and the Government would look 
after Cairo, he would himself move into the South- 
west to meet McCulloch, who was said to be ad- 



Lyon Declares War. 195 

vancing into Missouri from Arkansas with a large 
army. Orders conformable to these suggestions were 
instantly made by the President, and Lyon found 
himself early in June at the head of a considerable 
force, thoroughly organized, well armed, and equip- 
ped for active service. 

At St. Louis besides about five hundred Regulars, 
including Totten's Battery, he had of Missouri 
Volunteers, ten regiments of infantry, a battalion of 
artillery, one company of sappers and miners, and 
one company of rifles, aggregating about ten thou- 
sand officers and men. He had also several thousand 
Home Guards in different parts of the State, where 
the Germans were numerous and the Union senti- 
ment predominant, and they were generally well 
armed and equipped. At Fort Leavenworth there 
were four companies of infantry, four of cavalry, two 
of dragoons, and a number of recruits, the whole 
aggregating about one thousand men, all belonging 
to the United States Army. There were also in the 
same vicinity two regiments of Kansas Infantry, 
Dietzler's and Mitchell's, nearly two thousand strong. 
Two Iowa regiments (Bates' and Curtis') were on the 
northern border of the State and ready to invade it 
at a moment's notice ; and Illinois was concentrat- 
ing troops at Quincy, Alton and Cairo, whence they 
could enter Missouri in an hour. 

To oppose this formidable force the State had 



196 The Fight for Missouri. 

scarcely one thousand partially organized troops, 
and most of these were armed with shot guns and 
rifles. Except a few muskets and half a dozen field- 
pieces and some powder, it had no munitions of 
war, nor any supply of food, nor any transporta- 
tion, nor any military stores of any kind, nor any 
money. 

But all this did not dism.ay either the Governor or 
General Price. On the contrary, as soon as they 
learned that Harney had been removed and that 
Lyon was in command. General Price published an 
order to the brigadier-generals of the several 
military districts, in which he said that, while it was 
still the desire of the Governor and himself to 
maintain the neutrality of Missouri and keep the 
peace until her Convention should decide what 
position the State would take in the impending 
conflict, and were themselves still carrying out in 
good faith the agreement made with General 
Harney, the removal of that officer from the com- 
mand of the Federal forces in Missouri and the 
manifest intention of his successor. General Lyon, to 
arm the Union men of the State, which was itself a 
palpable violation of the Price-Harney agreement 
and one that ought to be resisted to the last ex- 
tremity, had aroused grave fears that the people 
were to be forced by the terrors of a military in- 
vasion to take a position not of their free choice ; 



Lyon Declares War. igy 

that it was his own intention to prevent the con- 
summation of such an outrage; and that they need 
have no fear that a milHon such people as the 
citizens of Missouri could be subjugated. 

Secret orders were at the same time sent to them 
to hasten the organization of the troops in their re- 
spective districts, and to get them ready for active 
service. Each regiment was instructed to adopt the 
State flag, which was to be " made of blue merino 
with the arms of the State emblazoned in gold gilt 
on each side." ^ 

The imminence of the danger led those v/ho still 
hoped to save Missouri from the horrors of war to 
make one more effort to prevent a conflict between 
the Federal troops and the State. William A. Hall, 
David H. Armstrong, and J. Richard Barret accord- 
ingly persuaded Governor Jackson and General 
Price to ask for an interview with Lyon. The 
latter, upon the request of Mr. Hall and Colonel 
Thomas T. Gantt, consented to the interview upon 
condition that the Governor and General Price 
would come to St. Louis and hold it there, and he 
also stipulated in writing that if the Governor and 
the General, or either of them " should -C-isit St. 
Louis on or before the I2th of June, in order to 
hold an interview with him for the purpose of 
effecting, if possible, a pacific solution of the troub- 
les of Missouri, they should be free from molesta- 



198 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

tion or arrest during their journey to St. Louis, and 
their return from St. Louis to Jefferson City." 

With this safe conduct Governor Jackson and 
General Price left Jefferson City on the afternoon 
of the loth, accompanied by one of the Governor's 
aides-de-camp, the writer of this narrative. 

The Governor notified General Lyon the next 
morning that he was at the Planters' House, 
and would "be pleased to confer with him there. 
Lyon replied that he would meet him and General 
Price at the arsenal instead. The Governor, rightly 
considering this reply as impertinent, informed 
General Lyon that he would confer with him at 
the Planters' House, and at no other place. Lyon 
accordingly came to the Planters' House, accom- 
panied by Blair and Major Conant, his aide-de- 
camp, and the conference took place there. 

Lyon opened it by saying that the discussion on 
the part of his Government " would be conducted 
by Colonel Blair, who enjoyed its confidence in the 
very highest degree, and was authorized to speak 
for it." Blair was, in fact, better fitted than any 
man in the Union to discuss with Jackson and Price 
the grave questions then at issue between the United 
States and the State of Missouri, and in all her 
borders there were no men better fitted than they 
to speak for Missouri on that momentous occasion. 

But, despite the modesty of his opening, Lyon 



Lyo)i Declares War. 199 

was too much in earnest, too zealous, too well in- 
formed on the subject, too aggressive, and too fond 
of disputation to let Blair conduct the discussion on 
the part of his Government. In half an hour it 
was he that w^as conducting it, holding his own at 
every point against Jackson and Price, masters 
though they were of Missouri politics whose course 
they had been directing and controlling for years 
while he was only captain of an infantry regiment 
on the Plains. He had not, however, been a mere 
soldier in those days, but had been an earnest 
student of the very questions that he was now dis- 
cussing, and he comprehended the matter as well 
as any man, and handled it in the soldierly way to 
which he had been bred, using the sword to cut 
knots that he could not untie. 

It was to no purpose that they all sought, or pre- 
tended to seek, the basis of a new agreement for 
maintaining the peace of Missouri. If they really 
sought to find one, they did not. Finally, when 
the conference had lasted four or five hours, Lyon 
closed it, as he had opened it. " Rather," said he, 
(he was still seated, and spoke deliberately, slowly, 
and with a peculiar emphasis) " rather than con- 
cede to the State of Missouri the right to demand 
that my Government shall not enlist troops within 
her limits, or bring troops into the State whenever 
it pleases, or move its troops at its own will into, 



200 The Fight for Missouri. 

out of, or through the State ; rather than concede 
to the State of Missouri for one single instant the 
right to dictate to my Government in any matter 
however unimportant, I would " (rising as he said 
this, and pointing in turn to every one in the room) 
'' see you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and 
every man, woman, and child in the State, dead and 
buried." Then turning to the Governor, he said : 
" This means war. In an hour one of my officers will 
call for you and conduct you out of my lines." 
And then, without another word, vvithout an inclina- 
tion of the head, without even a look, he turned 
upon his heel and strode out of the room, rattling 
his spurs and clanking his sabre, while we, whom he 
left, and who had known each other for years, bade 
farewell to each other courteously and kindly, and 
separated — Blair and Conant to fight for the Union, 
we for the land of our birth. 

On the way to Jefferson City it was decided that 
the Governor would forthwith issue a proclamation 
calling the people to arms ; that General Price 
should take field at the head of whatever force he 
could muster, and make such resistance as he might 
to the advance of Lyon; and that the Confederate 
Government should be asked to send a co-operating 
army into the State as quickly as possible. 

It was past two o'clock in the morning (June 12) 
when we reached Jefferson City. But there was no 



Lyon Declares War. 201 

thought of sleep, for every one was sure that Lyon 
would hasten to follow. By daybreak the Gov- 
ernor's proclamation, which I had prepared in ac- 
cordance with his instructions, was passing through 
the press ; the State officers had packed the public 
records and papers, which they wished to take 
away ; and everything betokened the speedy evacu- 
ation of the capital. 

The Proclamation was published during the day 
(June 12), and was sent to all parts of the State. 
As it sets out fairly the matters which were then in 
dispute between the State and the United States, 
and the grounds upon which the Governor called 
the people to arms, it may be quoted in full : 

"A series of unprovoked and unparalleled out- 
rages have been inflicted upon the peace and dig- 
nity of this Commonwealth and upon the rights 
and liberties of its people by wicked and unprin- 
cipled men, professing to act under the authority of 
the United States Government. The solemn enact- 
ments of your Legislature have been nullified ; your 
volunteer soldiers have been taken prisoners ; your 
commerce with your sister States has been sus- 
pended ; your trade with your own fellow-citizens 
lias been, and is, subjected to the harassing control 
of an armed soldiery ; peaceful citizens have been 
imprisoned without warrant of law; unoffending 



202 TJic FigJit for Missouri. 

and defenceless men, women, and children have been 
ruthlessly shot down and murdered ; and other un- 
bearable indignities have been heaped upon your 
State and yourselves. 

" To all these outrages and indignities you have 
submitted with a patriotic forbearance which has 
only encouraged the perpetrators of these grievous 
wrongs to attempt still bolder and more daring 
usurpations. It has been my earnest endeavor, un- 
der all these embarrassing circumstances, to maintain 
the peace of the State, and to avert, if possible, from 
our borders, the desolating effects of a civil war. 
With that object in view I authorized Major-Gen- 
eral Price, several weeks ago, to arrange with Gen- 
eral Harney commanding the Federal forces in this 
State, the terms of an agreement by which the 
peace of the State might be preserved. They came, 
on the 2 1st of May, to an understanding, which was 
made public. The State authorities have labored 
faithfully to carry out that agreement. The Fed- 
eral Government, on the other hand, not only mani- 
fested its strong opposition to it by the instant 
dismissal of the distinguished officer who, on its 
part, entered into it, but it at once began, and has 
uninterruptedly carried out, a system of hostile oper- 
ations in utter contempt of that agreement, and 
in reckless disregard of its own plighted faith. 
These acts latterly portended revolution and civil 



Lyon Declares IVa?'. 203 

war so unmistakably, that I resolved to make one 
further effort to avert these dangers and sufferings 
from you. I therefore solicited an interview with 
Brigadier-General Lyon, commanding the Federal 
army in Missouri. It was granted on the loth inst., 
and, waiving all questions personal and official, I went 
to St. Louis accompanied by Major-General Price. 

" We had an interview on the nth inst. with Gen- 
eral Lyon and Colonel F. P. Blair, jr., at which I sub- 
mitted to them this proposition : That I would dis- 
band the State Guard and break up its organization ; 
that I would disarm, all the companies which had been 
armed by the State; that I would pledge myself not 
to attempt to organize the militia under the Military 
Bill ; that no arms or other munitions of war should 
be brought into the State; that I would protect all 
citizens equally in all their rights, regardless of their 
political opinions ; that I would suppress all insur- 
rectionary movements within the State ; that I would 
repel all attempts to invade it from whatever quar- 
ter and by whomsoever made ; and that I would 
thus maintain a strict neutrality in the present un- 
happy contest, and preserve the peace of the State. 
And I further proposed that I would, if necessary, 
invoke the assistance of the United States troops 
to carry out these pledges. All this I proposed to 
do upon condition that the Federal Government 
would undertake to disarm the Home Guards, which 



204 ^-^^^ Fight for Alissonri. 

it has illegally organized and armed throughout the 
State, and pledge itself not to occupy with its troops 
any locality not occupied by them at this time, 

'' Nothing but the most earnest desire to avert the 
horrors of civil war from our State, could have 
tempted me to propose these humiliating terms. 
They were rejected by the Federal of^cers. 

"They demanded not only the disorganization 
and disarming of the State militia and the nullifica- 
tion of th* Military Bill ; but they refused to disarm 
their own Home Guards, and insisted that the Fed- 
eral Government should enjoy an unrestricted right 
to move and station its troops throughout the State, 
whenever and wdierever that might, in the opinion 
of its ofificers, be necessary for the protection of the 
' loyal subjects ' of the Federal Government, or for 
the repelling of invasion ; and they plainly announced 
that it was the intention of the Administration to 
take military occupation, under these pretexts, of the 
whole State, and to reduce it, as avowed by General 
Lyon himself, to ' the exact condition of Maryland.' 

" The acceptance by me of these degrading terms 
vv'ould not only have sullied the honor of Missouri, 
but would have aroused the indignation of every 
brave citizen, and would have precipitated the very 
conflict which it has been my aim to prevent. We 
refused to accede to them and the conference was 
broken up. 



Lyon Declares War. 205 

" Fellow-citizens ! all our efforts toward concilia- 
tion have failed. We can hope nothing from the 
moderation or justice of the agents of the Federal 
Government in this State. They are energetically 
hastening the execution of their bloody and revolu- 
tionary schemes for the inauguration of civil war in 
your midst ; for the military occupation of your 
State by armed bands of lawless invaders ; for the 
overthrov/ of your State Government, and the sub- 
version of those liberties which that Government 
has always sought to protect ; and they intend to 
exert their whole power to subjugate you, if pos- 
sible, to the military despotism which has usurped 
the powers of th^ Federal Government. 

" Now, therefore, I, Claiborne F. Jackson, Gover- 
nor of the State of Missouri, do, in view of the fore- 
going facts and by virtue of the powers vested in 
me by the Constitution and laws of this Common- 
wealth, issue this my proclamation, calling the 
militia of the State to the number of fifty thousand 
into the active service of the State, for the purpose 
of repelling said invasion, and for the protection 
of the lives, liberties, and property of the citizens 
of this State. And I earnestly exhort all good 
citizens of Missouri to rally under the flag of their 
State, for the protection of their homes and fire- 
sides, and for the defence of their most sacred rights 
and dearest privileges. 



2o6 TJis Fight for Missouri. 

" In issuing this proclamation I hold it to be my 
solemn duty to remind you that Missouri is still one 
of the United States ; that the executive department 
of the State Government does not arrogate to itself 
the power to disturb that relation ; that that power 
has been wisely vested in a convention, which will, 
at the proper time, express your sovereign will; and 
that meanwhile it is your duty to obey all constitu- 
tional requirements of the Federal Government. 

" But it is equally my duty to advise you that 
your first allegiance is due to your own State, and 
that you are under no obligation whatever to obey 
the unconstitutional edicts of the military despotism 
which has enthroned itself at Washington, or to 
submit to the infamous and degrading sway of its 
minions in this State. No brave and true-hearted 
Missourian will obey the one or submit to the other. 
Rise then and drive out ignominiously the invaders, 
who have dared to desecrate the soil which your 
labors have made fruitful, and which is consecrated 
by your homes." ' 

Immediately upon the removal of General Harney 
from the command of the Federal forces in Mis- 
souri, the Governor had, in anticipation of the 
speedy opening of hostilities, directed the quarter- 
master-general of the State to remove the armory 
and workshop, which had been established at Jef- 
ferson City, to the town of Boonevil'le, as General 



Lyon Declares War. 207 

Price was of opinion that it was better to make a 
stand at the latter place, which was in the midst of 
a friendly population, and contiguous to the coun- 
ties from which he expected the strongest support, 
than at the Capital, whose population, consisting 
largely of Germans, was unfriendly and hostile; 
and had decided that when the State forces should 
be compelled to retire from Jefferson City they 
would hold Booneville and the Missouri River 
above that point long enough to give the people of 
North Missouri an opportunity to come to his help. 
Both the Governor and General Price believed that, 
if this were done, they could within a week or two 
concentrate near Lexington an army stron'g enough 
to hold the western counties of Missouri until the 
Confederate States could send an army to their 
support, and arms and equipments for the State 
Guard. 

Orders were accordingly issued on the 12th of 
June to the commanding ofificers of the several mili- 
tary districts to immediately assemble all of their 
available men, each (except General John B. Clark) 
at some convenient place within his own district, 
and to get them ready for instant service in the 
field. General Clark, whose district was north of 
the Missouri, was ordered to rendezvous his men at 
Booneville, and to organize them there as speedily 
as possible. 



2o8 The Fight for Missouri. 

On Thursday the 13th the Governor learned 
that Lyon was embarking his troops at St. Louis, 
with the evident purpose to move against Jefferson 
City. General Price, who had already caused the 
railroad bridges across the Osage and the Gasconade 
to be destroyed so as to prevent Lyon's approach 
by rail, now ordered General Parsons, who had col- 
lected a small force at Jefferson City, to retire with 
it along the Pacific Railroad to a point south of 
Booneville, and there to await orders. He, together 
with the Governor, and their staff ofificers, and 
some of the State officials, and Captain Kelly's com- 
pany, embarked the same afternoon on the steamer 
White Cloud, and reached Booneville during the 
night. 

General John B. Clark was already there with 
several hundred men, who had eagerly answered the 
Governor's call. They continued to arrive during 
the next two days, Friday and Saturday, singly and 
in squads, bringing with them their shot guns and 
rifles. Most of them belonged to Colonel Marma- 
duke's regiment, which had been hastily organized 
at Jefferson City in May, but sent back to their 
homes before they could be taught either drill or 
discipline. 

Rumors which greatly exaggerated the real facts 
reached Booneville on Saturday (June 15) that a 
skirmish had taken place on the 13th near Independ- 



Lyon Declares War. 209 

ence between some State troops under Colonel 
Edmunds B. Holloway, and a detachment of Federal 
dragoons from Fort Leavenworth ; that Colonel 
Holloway had been killed ; and that some State 
troops, which were rendezvousing at Lexington, 
were threatened by a large body of United States 
cavalry, and several regiments of Kansas volun- 
teers. General Price determined, in consequence of 
these rumors, to proceed forthwith to Lexington 
and assume personal command of the State forces 
in that vicinity. He accordingly left the next 
morning (Sunday) for Lexington, after ordering 
General Clark, upon whom the command of the 
men at Booneville devolved, to hold that place as 
long as practicable, and then to effect a junction 
with General Parsons. He was already satisfied 
that, having no artillery with wdiich to obstruct the 
navigation of the Missouri, he would have to aban- 
don the line of that river, and to withdraw his force 
southward to some place where he could organize, 

arm and equip it. 
14 



CHAPTER XL 

BOONEVILLE AND CARTHAGE. 

Eyon sends Sweeny and Sigel to the South-west — Pursues the Gover- 
nor — Occupies Jefferson City — Advances on Booneville — The En- 
gagement at Booneville — Important Consequences — General Price 
at Lexington — Orders Rains to retreat southward towards Lamar 
— Hastens to meet McCulIoch — Governor Jackson retreats towards 
Warsaw — The Cole Camp Affair— Guibor and Barlow — Burbridge 
— The Governor reaches Lamar — Is joined by Rains and Slack — 
Temporary Organization of the State Guard — Lyon gets ready to 
pursue — Sturgis ordered to co-operate — Lyon and Sturgis move 
towards Clinton— Sigel tries to intercept the Governor — The Battle 
of Carthage — Defeat of Sigel. 

Hardly had Lyon left the Planters' House on 
the afternoon of the nth of June when he tele- 
graphed to the War Department for five thousand 
additional stand of arms, and for authority to enlist 
more troops in Missouri. His requests were in- 
stantly complied with. 

He issued orders the same night for the move- 
ment of his troops. 

Sigel, Salomon, and B. Gratz Brown were ordered 
towards Springfield with their regiments. They be- 
gan moving on the 13th, and had all left St. Louis 
on the 15th, accompanied by two batteries (eight 



Booncville and Carthage. 211 

guns) under Major Backoff. The command of this 
expedition was given to Captain Thomas W. 
Sweeny acting as brigadier-general by election, and 
by assignment of General Harney. Its objects 
were to occupy the south-western part of the State ; 
to oppose the apprehended advance of a Confeder- 
ate army under Ben. McCulloch ; and to cut off the 
retreat of Governor Jackson, General Price, and the 
State troops, all of whom Lyon proposed himself to 
drive in that direction. 

In execution of this purpose he embarked on the 
13th of June at St. Louis, with Totten's Light Bat- 
tery, Company F, Second United States Artillery ; 
Company B of the Second United States Infantry; 
two companies of United States Recruits ; Blair's 
regiment of Missouri Volunteers ; and nine compa- 
nies of Boernstein's regiment ; aggregating about 
two thousand men, and advanced by way of the 
Missouri River to Jefferson City. Arriving there on 
Saturday the 15th, about two P.M., he took quiet 
possession of the city, the State forces having 
evacuated it on Thursday. 

Leaving Colonel Boernstein and three companies 
of his regiment at Jefferson City, Lyon himself 
proceeded the next day (Sunday, June 16), with the 
rest of his command — about seventeen hundred 
men — towards Booneville. When within fifteen 
miles of that city, the transports were ordered to 



212 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

lay by till daybreak ; about which time they moved 
on to a point about eight miles below Booneville. 
There Lyon debarked all of his men, except one 
company of BJair's regiment, and a detachment of 
artillery with one howitzer. These he ordered to 
proceed up the river on the transports, in order to 
deceive the State troops and to create a diversion 
in favor of his real movement. Lyon himself ad- 
vanced with his main body along the river road to- 
vv^ards Booneville, moving very cautiously, as he had 
been led to believe that he would have to encounter 
at least " three or four thousand rebels." 

Governor Jackson learned Sunday night that 
Lyon was approaching Booneville by way of the 
river. He at once ordered General Parsons who 
was at Tipton, some twenty miles to the south, to 
bring his whole command to Booneville forthwith. 
As soon as it was known on Monday morning that 
Lyon had debarked his force, and was advancing 
upon the city by land, the Governor ordered Mar- 
maduke to take his own regiment, and all other 
armed men in the city, except Kelly's company, 
and to move out against Lyon, and impede his ad- 
vance as much as possible. This was done in order 
to give Parsons time to come up, and also to give 
to such citizens as might want to escape, the oppor- 
tunity to arrange their affairs and leave ; and also 
to enable General Harding to destroy his ordnance 



Booueville and Carthage. 213 

shops, and the material which he had collected. 
Colonel Marmaduke, who had already protested 
against making any resistance at Booneville and 
had advised the Governor to concentrate his forces- 
behind the Osage in the neighborhood of Warsaw, 
again represented to him that to meet Lyon now 
could only result in disaster to the State troops. 
The Governor, nevertheless repeated his order, and 
Marmaduke went out with between 400 and 500 
men to confront the enemy. 

Lyon had advanced about two miles when his 
skirmishers encountered Marmaduke, who at once 
opened such a brisk fire as to compel Lyon to bring 
up his artillery and deploy a part of his infantry. 
Having accomplished this, Marmaduke withdrew 
his men to a stronger position about a mile nearer 
to the city. There, under cover of some buildings 
and a dense wood, he made a stand, which appeared 
so formidable to Lyon, who greatly overestimated 
Marmaduke's strength, that he deployed his whole 
force in line of battle. A sharp engagement now 
took place, in the midst of which Colonel Marma- 
duke received orders from the Governor to fall back 
to the city, in order to form a junction with Gen- 
eral Parsons, who was rapidly approaching. 

It was no easy matter, however, to withdraw 
four or five hundred raw troops from a field, on 
which they were engaged with four times their own 



214 '^^^^ Fight for Missouri. 

number of well armed and well disciplined soldiers 
commanded by a man like Lyon. They neverthe- 
less fell back in some order at first, taking ad- 
vantage of every good point to deliver their fire at 
the Federals; but they were in the end pretty 
thoroughly dispersed. 

Such was the trifling engagement which has been 
called " the Battle of Booneville." The Federal loss 
was two men killed, and nine wounded. Of the 
State troops two were killed, and five or six were 
slightly wounded. 

Insignificant as was this engagement in a military 
aspect, it was in fact a stunning blow to the South- 
ern Rights' people of the State, and one which did 
incalculable and unending injury to the Confederates. 
It was indeed the consummation of Blair's states- 
manlike scheme to make it impossible for Missouri to 
secede, or out of her great resources to contribute 
abundantly of men and material to the Southern 
cause as she would surely have done had her people 
been left free to do as they pleased. 

It was also the crowning achievement of Lyon's 
well-conceived campaign. The capture of Camp 
Jackson had disarmed the State, and compelled the 
loyalty of St. Louis and all the adjacent counties. 
The advance upon Jefferson City had put the State 
Government to flight, and taken away from it that 
prestige which gives force to established authority. 



Booncville and Carthage. 215 

The dispersion of the vohinteers who had rushed to 
Booneville to fight under Price for Missouri and the 
South, extended Lyon's conquest over all the coun- 
try lying between the Missouri and the State of 
Iowa ; closed all the avenues by which the Southern 
men of that part of Missouri could make their way 
to Price; made the Missouri an unobstructed Fed- 
eral highway from its source to its mouth; and ren- 
dered it impossible for Price to hold the rich, popu- 
lous, and friendly counties in the vicinity of Lexing- 
ton. Price had indeed no alternative now but to 
retreat in all haste to the south-western corner of 
the State, there to organize his army under the pro- 
tection of the force which the Confederate Govern- 
ment was mustering in north-western Arkansas 
under General McCulloch, for the protection of that 
State and the Indian Territory, ) 

When Price reached Lexington on the i8th of 
June, he found several thousand volunteers assem- 
bled there and in the adjoining county of Jackson 
under Brigadier-Generals Rains and Slack. His 
first care was to organize them. But hardly had he 
begun this work when news was brought of the dis- 
aster at Booneville, and of the retreat of the Gov- 
ernor, w'ith Generals Parsons and Clark, towards 
Warsaw. Knowing that the unorganized force at 
Lexington was now threatened not only by the 
Federal troops at Fort Leavenworth and Kansas 



2i6 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

City, 2,500 strong, but by Lyon and his army also, , 
Price ordered Rains to assume command of all the 
State troops near Lexington and to move them as 
expeditiously as possible towards Lamar in Barton 
County. He, accompanied by his staff and a small 
mounted escort, made his way in all haste to Ar- 
kansas, in order to bring McCulloch to the rescue of 
both the Governor and Rains. 

The Governor was, meanwhile, hurrying towards 
Warsaw, feeling that he would not be safe from 
Lyon's pursuit till he had gotten behind the Osage. 
He was met on the way by rumors that a well- 
armed regiment of Home Guards under Colonel 
Cook was at Cole Camp, on his line of march. On 
approaching the place, however, he learned, to his 
great relief, that the Home Guards had been sur- 
prised and badly whipped on the morning of the 
19th by a battalion of State troops raised near 
Warsaw and led by two very dashing young sol- 
diers, Lieutenant-Colonel Walter S. O'Kane and 
Major Thomas H. Murray. The news was quickly 
confirmed by the arrival of the battalion at the Gov- 
ernor's camp, with three hundred and sixty-two 
new muskets which they had taken from the Home 
Guards. Thus reinforced, the Governor continued 
his retreat to Warsaw, and across the Osage. 

There he halted in order to ascertain the move- 



Booiicvillc and Carthage. 217 

ments of General Price. During this time, two 
men, who had been arrested as spies, were brought 
before tlie Governor. They turned out to be 
Henry Guibor and Wilham P. Barlow, lieuten- 
ants of the light battery which had been serving 
in the south-west under Bowen. They had been 
captured with the rest of the State troops at Camp 
Jackson and paroled. Holding that their capture 
was unlawful, and that their paroles were therefore 
not obligatory (as the courts subsequently decided), 
they had made their way to the army, and were 
eager to be placed on duty. They came very oppor- 
tunely ; for Parsons was still dragging along the four 
brass 6-pounders which had been captured at Lib- 
erty Arsenal, but he had no men that knew how to 
handle them. They were turned over to Guibor 
and Barlow. But having been brought along with- 
out equipments and without any fixed ammunition, 
they would still have been of very little present use 
but for the inventive genius and energy of the two 
young officers, who, surmounting every difficulty, 
enlisted a company, equipped the guns, prepared 
ammunition, and got the battery ready for instant 
service. 

Another notable accession to the Governor's force 
at this time was John Q. Burbridge and ten other 
men from Pike County who came into camp, bring- 
ing with them from that remote county about one 



2i8 Tlie FigJit for Missouri. 

hundred and fifty muskets, which they had taken 
by guile from a company of State mihtia mostly 
loyal Germans, and had brought by force to the 
Governor. Within thirty-six hours Burbridge had 
enlisted and was in command of a well-armed com- 
pany. 

Having ascertained that General Price had gone 
to McCulloch's head-quarters, and that Rains was 
retreating southward, the Governor put his own col- 
umn in motion, and a few days thereafter reached 
Montevallo, in Vernon County, and thence moved 
to Camp Lamar, on the right bank of Spring River, 
some three miles north of the village of Lamar. 

There he was joined by Rains and Slack on the 
3d of July. The march of their column had been 
greatly impeded and made laborious and fatiguing 
by the high waters of the streams across which they 
had to ferry their long-drawn, motley train of 
vehicles of every description laden not only with 
supplies for an army, but chiefly with household 
goods and utensils of every sort, conspicuous 
among which were feather-beds and frying-pans. 
The Governor, therefore, determined to halt at 
Camp Lamar for a few days in order to rest the 
men ; and meanwhile to distribute them to the 
commands to which they properly belonged. 

Rains was found to have nearly three thousand 
men, but many of them were unarmed. His efTec- 



Booncville and Carthage. 219 

tive strength was about twelve hundred infantry 
under Weightman, about six hundred mounted men 
under Cawthon, and a three-gun battery under 
Bledsoe. Parsons had about six hundred and fifty 
armed men. His infantry were commanded by 
Colonel Kelly, his mounted men by Colonel Brown, 
and his four-gun battery by Guibor. Clark had 
Burbridge's regiment of infantry, whose effective 
strength was three hundred and sixty-five officers 
and men. Slack's brigade consisted of about five 
hundred mounted men under Colonel Rives, and 
about seven hundred infantry under Colonel 
Hughes, and Major Thornton. Parsons, Clark, and 
Slack had also about eight hundred unarmed men. 

Lyon was notified the day after the affair at Boonc- 
ville (June 1 8th), that Missouri had been detached 
from the Department of the West, and attached 
to the Department of the Ohio, commanded by 
Major-General George B. McClellan. This had been 
done by the advice of General Scott, and through 
the solicitation of Attorney-General Bates, Judge 
Gamble and other St. Louisians, who did not like 
Blair, and had no great confidence in " Captain " 
Lyon. Fearing that this would interfere with 
their campaign, Blair hurried to Washington City 
to obtain a revocation of the order, and the 
assigment of Lyon to the command of military 



220 The Fight for Missouri. 

operations in Missouri. This he could not accom- 
phsh, but he finally persuaded the Administration 
on the 3d of July to organize Illinois together with 
Missouri and all the other States and Territories 
lying between the Mississippi River and the Rocky 
Mountains into a separate military command to be 
known as the The Wcsterii Department, under 
Major-General Fremont, with head-quarters at St. 
Louis. 

McClellan did not interfere with Lyon during the 
short time that his command extended over Mis- 
souri, and the latter went on to execute the plans 
which Blair and he had devised for the conquest of 
the State, though he w^as severely crippled by the 
loss of Blair, whose presence and counsels were of 
inestimable importance to him. While procuring 
transportation and supplies, and reinforcing and re- 
organizing his army at Booneville, Lyon published 
a proclamation to the people of Missouri, promising 
not to molest any man who had taken up arms 
against the Government, if he would return to his 
home and remain there quietly. This wise measure 
had the effect which he anticipated, and kept thou- 
sands of men out of the ranks of the State Guard. 

He next assigned Colonel John D. Stevenson to 
the command of the Missouri River from Kansas 
City to its mouth, and gave him a sufficient force to 
garrison Jefferson City, Booneville and Lexington, 



Boonevillc and Carthage. 221 

and ordered him also to protect the loyal inhabit- 
ants of the adjacent counties ; to disperse all gath- 
erings of men hostile to the Federal Government ; 
and to prevent reinforcements from, crossing the 
river to Price. All that part of the State north of 
the Missouri was entrusted temporarily to the com- 
mand of Colonel Samuel R. Curtis, who had already 
occupied parts of it with the Second Iowa Infantry. 
South-eastern Missouri was left to the care of 
McClellan, who was for that purpose concentrating 
at Cairo an ample force, under Brigadier-General 
Prentiss. St. Louis and all the country within a 
hundred and fifty miles of it, had been thoroughly 
subjugated, and was occupied by sufficient garri- 
sons. 

Major Sturgis was already following Rains with 
about nine hundred regulars from Fort Leav- 
enworth, and two regiments of Kansas Volun- 
teers about sixteen hundred strong. Lyon himself 
moved from Booneville on the 3d of July v/ith 
about two thousand three hundred and fifty men, 
of whom two hundred and fifty were regulars. 
The two columns had an effective strength of 
about four thousand eight hundred and fifty men. 
They were all well armed and equipped, and fully 
supplied with everything that an army in the field 
required. They were also officered by educated 
soldiers, many of whom afterwards rose to distinc- 



222 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

tion. But Lyon had lost fifteen days of priceless 
time at Booneville, and the State troops were more 
than a week in advance of his own column, near 
Lamar. 

In front of the Governor, though he did not him- 
self know it, was the force which Lyon, before leav- 
ing St. Louis, had sent under Sweeney and Sigel to 
the south-west to cut off the retreat of the State 
troops, and to prevent McCulloch from succoring 
them. Sweeny, who reached Springfield on the 
1st of July, found at and near that post and on the 
way thither from Rolla, about four thousand men, 
including one thousand Home Guards. Sigel, who 
had preceded him, had moved westward with his 
own regiment and Salomon's, and taken position at 
Neosho and Sarcoxie in order to intercept General 
Price. Finding that Price and his escort had 
already passed on to McCulloch's camp, he decided 
to throw himself in front of Governor Jackson, and 
to hold him north of Spring River till Lyon could 
come up with his own and Sturgis' columns and 
attack him in rear. In this determination he was 
confirmed by an order from Sweeny, who directed 
him to concentrate his force, and move toward 
Carthage, which was in the direct line of the Gov- 
ernor's retreat. Leaving one company of his own 
recriment and some detailed men at Neosho under 



Booncvillc and Carthage. 223 

command of Captain Conrad, he moved northward 
with the rest of his force, except Captain Indest's 
company, and encamped on the evening of the 
4th of July on Spring River a httle south-east of 
Carthage. 

Just after the sun had gone down on the 4th of 
July, and while the State troops were still encamped 
near Lamar, resting from their fatigues, and getting 
themselves into some semblance of an army, a man 
rode hastily to General Parsons' quarters and told 
the general that Colonel Monroe (his quarter- 
master) who had gone to Carthage with a detach- 
ment of ninety-five men to collect forage and sub- 
sistence, was threatened there by a large force of 
the enemy, and wanted reinforcements. Parsons 
instantly ordered his whole command to get ready 
to march toward Carthage at ten o'clock that 
night, and then communicated the facts to the 
Governor. 

This was the first intimation that the State troops 
had that an enemy was in their front with intent 
to cut off their retreat. But before the hour fixed 
by Parsons for the movement of his command had 
arrived, other couriers had come from Monroe say- 
ing that the Federals were approaching Carthage in 
great force. Governor Jackson thereupon assumed 
command in person of all his troops, and, counter- 



224 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

manding Parsons' order for the movement of his 
own force, ordered the whole army to take up 
the march at day break (July 5), with Rains in 
front, and Captain Shelby's company in advance. 
The Governor, accompanied by General David R. 
Atchison and other volunteer aids and by some of 
his own staff, rode at the head of the column with 
General Rains. They had marched about five miles 
beyond Lamar when they were met by Colonel 
Monroe and informed by him that Sigel had al- 
ready passed through Carthage, and was on the 
way to meet them and give battle. The col- 
umn was quickly halted on the ridge of a prairie, 
which sloped gently down toward Coon Creek, an 
affluent of Spring River. This creek, which was 
heavily bordered on both sides by "timber" and 
"brush," was about two miles in front of the State 
troops. Hardly had they been halted when the 
bayonets of the Federals were seen gleaming in the 
sunshine as they descended the opposite declivity 
in perfect order, before disappearing in " the timber" 
on that side of the creek. 

The Governor at once deployed his men in line of 
battle, with Weightman's brigade on the right, and 
on its left Slack's Infantry. Between these two 
Bledsoe's three guns were thrown into battery. 
Guibor took position with his four guns on the left 
of Slack, and next to him came Parsons' Infantry, 



Boon evil Ic and Cartilage. 225 

under Colonel Kelly. Clark's Infantry under Bur- 
bridge occupied the left. The ric^ht flank of the 
State troops was covered by Rains with the mounted 
men of his division, and their left flank by mount- 
ed men under Brown and Rives. The line thus 
formed consisted of twenty-six hundred infantry 
and artillery most of the former armed with shot 
guns and rifles, and about fifteen hundred mounted 
men similarly arrned. The unarmed men, of whom 
there were about two thousand, all mounted, were 
sent to the rear with the wagons. 

Every one, officers and men, now looked on with 
intense curiosity, as the Federals, with the precision 
of veterans which most of them were, emerged from 
" the brush " on the north side of the creek, and de- 
ployed into line on the prairie some twelve hundred 
yards away. They consisted of nine companies of 
Sigel's Regiment and seven companies of Salomon's, 
with an effective strength of nine hundred and fifty 
men, and seven pieces of artillery (one hundred and 
twenty-five men) under Major Backoff. 

Sigel began the fight. Advancing his line about 
three hundred yards, he opened upon the State troops 
with all his guns, delivering a steady fire of round 
shot, shell and grape. Guibor replied with his four 
guns and was followed on the instant by Bledsoe. 
The ineffective artillery practice thus begun had 
been kept up nearly an hour, when the Governor 



226 The Fight for Missouri. 

ordered Rains to advance on the right with his 
mounted men, and Rives and Brown on the left. 
The unarmed men on horseback (about two tliou- 
sand) were at the same time ordered to seek shelter 
in- the heavy timber on the right of the State troops. 

Sigel, seeing these movements, and that he was 
about to be attacked on both flanks, and fancying 
also that he was about to be taken in rear by the 
heavy mounted force which was taking shelter in the 
woods (for he did not know that they were not 
armed) withdrew his men in good order first to the 
timber, and then beyond the creek. Posting Essig's 
Battery, with a support of five companies of infantry 
on the high ground south of the creek in such way 
as to command the approach to the ford, he retired 
with the rest of his men to the defence of his train, 
then threatened by some mounted Missourians who 
had crossed the creek higher up. 

The State troops following in some disorder were 
brought to a halt within four hundred yards of 
the ford by the well-directed fire of Essig's Battery. 
But Weightman rapidly reforming his line, opened 
fire with Bledsoe's guns, and under their cover and 
that of " the timber," advanced his own brigade 
along with Slack's toward the creek. It was now 
and here that the serious fighting of the day took 
place; for Essig continued to hold the ford with 
great obstinacy. But General Clark and General 



Booncvillc and Carthage. 227 

Parsons managed at last to cross the creek at an- 
other ford and were endangering his retreat. Essig 
thereupon gave the order to retire, and fell back to 
the main body. 

Sigel continued his retreat in good order, closely 
followed by a rabble of State troops and harassed 
on all sides by their mounted men, who did not, 
however, dare to attack his compact ranks. Cross- 
ing Spring River without opposition he held Car- 
thage under cover of its houses and fences till his 
train was well on the road to Springfield. He then 
continued his retreat to Sarcoxie, fifteen miles away. 
Reaching that place at three o'clock in the morning, 
he rested his men there till daybreak, and then hast- 
ened along to Mount Vernon. Finding that he was 
no longer pursued, he halted there. As the engage- 
ment took place about nine miles north of Carthage, 
Sigel had on the 5th of July marched under a blazing 
sun more than ten miles, had met and fought on 
the same day an army four times as numerous as 
his own, and had then withdrawn his men in good 
order, first to Carthage nine miles from the field, and 
then to Sarcoxie fifteen miles further, without halting 
either to eat or to sleep. 

The Federal loss in this " engagement near Carth- 
age," generally called The Battle of Carthage, was 
thirteen killed and thirty-one wounded. The State 
troops lost ten killed and sixty-four wounded. The 



228 TJie Fight foi- Missouri. 

Federal commander estimated Governor Jackson's 
losses at " not less than from three hundred and 
fifty to four hundred," and Confederate historians 
have estimated Sigel's loss " at from one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred killed, and from three hun- 
dred to four hundred wounded ! " 

The State troops occupied on the night of the 
battle the ground on which Sigel had camped the 
preceding night, and the next day (July 6) they 
marched leisurely and in great good spirits toward 
Granby. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE CONFEDERATES ENTER MISSOURI. 

Ben McCulloch assigned to defence of the Indian Territory — Con- 
centrates his force, including Pearce's Brigade, near Fort Smith — 
Governor Jackson, before leaving Jefferson City, asks him to enter 
Missouri — McCulloch asks the President's consent — Advances to 
Maysville — Joins Price — Marches with him to rescue the Gover- 
nor and the Missouri troops — Meets them — Price Assumes Com- 
mand of the State Guard — Cowskin Prairie — Reorganization of 
the State Guard — Price's Difficulties — He surmounts them — Gover- 
nor Jackson, Price, and McCulloch try to secure the co-operation 
of Polk and Hardee — Polk sends Pillow to New Madrid, but Har- 
dee refuses to co-operate — Price, McCulloch, and Pearce move 
against Springfield — They concentrate their armies at Cassville. 

Ben. McCulloch, the well-known Texan ranji^er, 
had been appointed on the 13th of May, brigadier- 
general of the Provisional Army of the Confederate 
States, and assigned to the command of the Indian 
Territory with orders to guard it against invasion 
from Kansas or elsewhere. A regiment of infantry 
from Louisiana, a mounted regiment from Arkansas, 
and another from Texas were ordered to report to 
him, and he was also authorized to raise two regi- 
ments of Indians. On the 25th of May he reached 
Fort Smith and went a few days later into the In- 
dian Territory to select a position for his command. 



230 The Fight for Missouri. 

He found a suitable one in the Cherokee country, 
but discovered that John Ross, the Cherokee chief, 
and a majority of that nation were opposed to the 
occupation of their lands by any armed force. He, 
therefore, decided not to occupy the Territory, but 
to take a position at Fort Smith in western Arkansas 
instead. This change of plan led him to ask the 
Confederate Government to add north-western 
Arkansas to his command. This request was not 
granted. By the 12th of June he had, at and near 
Fort Smith, the Third Louisiana Infantry Colonel 
Louis Hebert, and seven companies of Churchill's 
Regiment of Mounted Riflemen (Arkansas). There 
was also in the same vicinity a brigade of Arkansas 
Militia, about one thousand five hundred strong, 
under command of Brigadier-General N. B. Pearce, a 
graduate of West Point. 

This was the force which had excited the ap- 
prehensions of Blair and Lyon, and aroused the 
hopes of Governor Jackson and the Missouri Seces- 
sionists. 

When the Governor, early in June, learned that 
McCulloch was at Fort Smith, he sent Captain 
Colton Greene to him with an urgent request that 
he would advance into the State with his army, 
in order to encourage the Southern Rights' people, 
and give General Price time to enlist and organize 
the State Guard. Greene reached Fort Smith on 



The Confederates Enter Missouri. 231 

the 13th of June — the day that the Governor and 
General Price left Jefferson City — and at once laid 
the Governor's request before McCulloch, who 
listened attentively though with that cautious reserve 
which was one of his most noticeable characteristics. 
But the adjutant-general of his brigade Captain Mc- 
intosh, a very enterprising and intelligent young 
ofificer who had just resigned from the United States 
Army and been sent by Mr. Davis to Arkansas to 
help McCulloch organize and handle his troops, ap- 
preciated the importance of the movement which 
Governor Jackson suggested, and advocated it so 
earnestly that McCulloch promised to ask the Presi- 
dent's permission to execute it. And he did, on the 
next day, the 14th of June, write to the Secretary of 
War as follows : 

" I think the proposition made by the Governor 
is one of great importance to the Confederate 
Government, and I hope it may meet with your 
favorable consideration. I will briefly lay before you 
a plan of operations. The Chief of the Cherokees 
is not willing to have a force marched into his 
country, and he desires to remain neutral. The only 
way to force his country into the Confederacy is to 
throw a force into the north-western portion of this 
State, take possession of Fort Scott on the Missouri 
line, and subjugate that portion of Kansas. I am 
satisfied that Lane has no force yet of any impor- 



232 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

tance, and the occupation of Fort Scott would not 
only place Kansas in my power, but would give heart 
and countenance to our friends in Missouri, and 
accomplish the very object for which I was sent here 
— preventing a force from the North invading the 
Indian Territory. 

" All the border counties on the western line of 
Missouri are with us. We would therefore be able 
to draw our supplies from them. After strengthen- 
ing myself at Fort Scott; I could, by co-operating 
with Missouri, take such a position on the Kansas 
River as I might desire. In order to carry out this 
plan I would again respectfully ask to have the 
Western Military Division of Arkansas put under 
my orders, with authority to muster the troops now 
in it (about sixteen hundred) into the provisional 
forces, and to accept such other regiments and bat- 
talions until my force is at least seven thousand 
strong." 

He was opposed to employing Indians in Kansas, 
or elsewhere outside of their own territory. 

This plan of campaign was both wise and feasible, 
and upon being outlined to the Governor of Arkan- 
sas, a few days later, was so heartily approved by 
him, that he telegraphed (June 21) to the Secretary 
of War that Arkansas had eight thousand armed 
men in the field, whom it would turn over to the 
Confederate Government for the proposed move- 



TJic Confederates Enter Missouri. 233 

ment, and suggested that " an active campaign in 
Missouri would aid Virginia." But the policy of the 
Confederate Government, which, acting strictly on 
the defensive, did not then contemplate the invasion 
of any " loyal " State, and least of all Missouri, which 
it believed to be hopelessly subjugated ! And this 
policy it observed so strictly that it would not now 
manifest any disposition to help the Governor array 
the State on the side of the South, or evince even a 
desire to utilize her great resources for the good of 
the Confederacy. But, on the contrary, under the 
influence of unwise counsellors and through its own 
unpardonable ignorance of the true condition of the 
State, it declined to make any effort to prevent the 
Federal Government from occupying her territory 
and using her power to crush the South. 

To McCulloch's proposition to assist the Missour- 
ians the Secretary of War therefore replied coldly 
that he might, if he thought proper, take position 
at Fort Scott, and give such assistance to Mis- 
souri as would subserve the main purpose of his 
command, which was " to conciliate the Indian 
Nations, and to obtain tlieir active co-operation in 
prosecuting the war." 

Missouri, with her hundred thousand men and 
resources greater than those of all the Cotton States 
together, was worth nothing to the Confederacy in 
comparison with two or three regiments of semi- 



234 The Fight for Missouri. 

civilized Indians, who ought never to have been 
allowed to cross the frontiers of their own terri- 
tory ! 

The Secretary did not even notice McCulloch's 
request for the addition of north-western Arkansas 
to his command. To have granted that request 
might have inflamed McCulloch's ambition, and 
v/ould have given him the opportunity, and along 
with it the power, to make an active campaign in 
Missouri. Fearing that he might do this any way, 
the Secretary further admonished him, on the 4th 
of July, that '' the position of Missouri, as a South- 
ern State still in the Union, requires, as you will 
readily perceive, much prudence and circumspec- 
tion, and it should only be when necessity and pro- 
priety unite that active and direct assistance should 
be afforded by crossing the boundary and entering 
the State." 

Such was the military status in western Arkansas 
when McCulloch learned that Governor Jackson and 
General Price were retreating toward Arkansas, 
closely pursued by Lyon and Sturgis, with a large 
force of Federal troops. He "determined to march 
against this force, to hold it in check, and if an 
opportunity occurred, to strike it a blow in Mis- 
souri," and set out at once for Maysville, in the 
north-western corner of the State, orderinsf Hebert 



The Confederates E liter Missouri. 235 

and Churchill to follow immediately with their 
regiments. Pearce had already moved thither with 
his brigade of Arkansas militia, for the protection 
of his own State. McCulloch had not yet learned 
that the Confederate Government did not approve 
his proposed invasion of Missouri. 

General Price, as has been told, left Lexington 
with a small escort immediately after the affair at 
Booneville, and hastened toward Fort Smith, in 
order to persuade McCulloch to come to the rescue 
of Missouri. On the way he was joined by a fine 
mounted company, the Windsor Guards, from 
Henry County, and by other companies, and men 
in squads, until, when he reached Cowskin Prairie 
in the extreme south-western corner of the State, 
about twelve miles from Maysville, his force 
amounted to nearly twelve hundred men, though 
many of them had no arms at all. He there 
learned, July the ist, that General Pearce was near 
Maysville with his Arkansas brigade. As soon, 
therefore, as he got his men into camp he pushed 
on to Pearce, who told him that McCulloch was on 
the march from Fort Smith, and would reach Mays- 
ville the next day. 

Pearce also loaned him six hundred and fifteen 
muskets with which to arm his men. Returning to 
Cowskin Prairie Price hastily organized his force, 



236 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

placing such as were well mounted and well armed 
and fit for active service, under the immediate com- 
mand of Alexander E. Steen, a promising young 
Missourian who had resigned his commission in the 
United States Army in order to serve his native 
State. 

The next day, McCulloch, who had reached 
Maysville in advance of his men, rode over to 
General Price's head-quarters. While he was there 
they learned that the Governor and General Rains 
were trying to effect a junction of their forces north 
of Carthage, but were closely pressed by Lyon and 
Sturgis. McCulloch at once agreed to move to the 
assistance of the Missourians, and to persuade 
Pearce to unite in the movement. This Pearce 
gladly consented to do, and Churchill having 
reached Maysville the next morning by a forced 
march, McCulloch and Pearce entered Missouri the 
4th of July, with Churchill's Regiment, Gratiot's 
Arkansas Infantry, Carroll's Mounted Regiment, 
and Woodruff's Battery. Reaching Price's camp 
the same day, they were there joined by him and 
continued their march northward. Hearing, the 
next day, that the Governor was not only pressed 
in rear by Lyon and Sturgis, but that Sigel had 
thrown himself in his front, McCulloch left his in- 
fantry behind, and he and Price then pushed for- 
ward with their mounted men. 



The Confederates Enter Missouri. 237 

On approaching Neosho (July 5), McCulIoch sent 
forward two detachments of Churchill's Regiment — - 
one under command of that officer, and the other 
under Captain Mcintosh — to capture the company 
which Sigel had left there. Making a forced march 
they accomplislied this without firing a shot, and 
found themselves in the unexpected possession of 
one hundred and thirty-seven prisoners, and, what 
they valued more highly, one hundred and fifty 
stand of arms and seven wagons laden with sup- 
plies. 

During the night Price and McCulloch came up 
with the rest of their mounted force. Resuming 
the march at break of day on the 6th, they were 
well on their way to Carthage when the glad 
tidings came that the Governor, having effected a 
junction of all the State forces, had fallen upon 
Sigel and defeated him, and was marching toward 
them, his men rejoicing in their victory, and confi- 
dent in their prowess. 

Jackson and his troops did, indeed, have abun- 
dant cause to rejoice; for, though we had not won 
a great victory as we foolishly fancied, or estab- 
lished the independence of the Confederacy as 
some believed, we had escaped a very great danger. 
For Lyon had been close behind with an over- 
whelming force, and, had he overtaken, would have 
routed and dispersed, us. Now we were not only 



238 TJie Fight for Missojiri. 

safe from pursuit and no enemy in our front, but we 
would, within an hour, be under the protecting 
folds of the Confederate flag, and side by side with 
that Confederate Army, for whose coming we had 
been so anxiously waiting. No wonder that we 
burst into loud huzzas when the redoubtable 
McCulloch came into sight, surrounded by his 
gaily-dressed staff, and when accompanied by Gov- 
ernor Jackson, General Price, and General Pearce, 
he rode down our dust-stained ranks to greet the 
men that had fought with Sigel and put him to 
flight. 

We were all young then, and full of hope, and 
looked with delighted eyes on the first Confederate 
soldiers that we had ever seen, the men all dressed 
in sober gray, and their officers resplendent with 
gilded buttons, and golden braid and stars of gold. 
To look like these gallant soldiers ; to be of them ; 
to fight beside them for their homes and for our 
own, was the one desire of all the Missourians, who, 
on that summer day, stood on one of their own 
verdant prairies, gazing southward. 

In all their motley array there was hardly a uni- 
form to be seen, and then, and throughout all the 
brilliant campaign on which they were about to 
enter thers was nothing to distinguish their offi- 
cers, even a general, from the men in the ranks, 
save a bit of red flannel, or a piece of cotton cloth, 



TJic Confederates Entc7- Missouri. 239 

fastened to the shoulder, or to the arm, of the former. 
But for all that they were the truest and best of 
soldiers. Many of them, when just emerging from 
boyhood, had fought under Price or Doniphan in 
Mexico ; many had been across the great plains, and 
were enured to the dangers and privations of the 
wilderness; and many had engaged in the hot strife 
which had ensanguined the prairies of Kansas. 
Among them there was hardly a man who could 
not read and write, and who was not more intelli- 
gent than the great mass of American citizens ; not 
one who had not voluntarily abandoned his home 
with all its tender ties, and thrown away all his 
possessions, and left father and mother, or wife and 
children, within the enemy's lines, that he might 
himself stand by the South in her hour of great 
peril, and help her to defend her fields and her fire- 
sides. And among them all there was not a man 
who had come forth to fight for slavery. 

McCulloch and Pearce now returned with their 
troops to Maysville, and General Price, assuming 
command of the Missourians, led them by easy 
marches to Cowskin Prairie, which they reached on 
the 9th of July. Up to this time few of them had 
been formed into regiments, or even into companies. 
To organize, arm, and fit them somewhat for the 
field, was the first care of General Price. The diffi- 
culty of this task was greatly enhanced by the fact 



240 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

that he had no arms, no miHtary suppHes of any kind, 
and no money with which to procure any, even if any 
had been procurable. It mattered not at all that 
he had no money to pay the men. There was not 
one of them who expected or who wanted to be 
paid for his services, or who ever was paid. But 
men and horses must be fed ; and on Cowskin 
Prairie there was for the men little but lean beef, 
and for their horses nothing but the grass of the 
prairie. To supply their more pressing wants 
Quarter-master General Harding, and Colonel John 
Reid, the chief commissary of the army, went first to 
Fort Smith, and thence to Little Rock, and after- 
wards to Memphis, but procured nothing in time for 
use in the impending campaign, though they ob- 
tained supplies which contributed greatly to the 
efficiency and comfort of the army during the en- 
suing fall and winter. 

Another great difificulty which General Price had 
to overcome was the want of experienced soldiers, 
who could help him to organize his army aright 
and equip it for the field. He had, it is true, an 
abundance of officers fully competent to command 
a regiment or a brigade, and many excellent com- 
pany officers, but for the important duties of the 
staff he had to rely upon men who had not been 
trained to a military life, and who had everything 
to learn. For instance, the chief of ordnance of his 



The Confederates Enter Missouri. 241 

army was one of the Governor's aides who did not 
know the difference between a siege gun and a 
howitzer, and had never seen a musket cartridge in 
all the days of his life. Fortunately he had some 
administrative ability, and all around him were men 
who had from boyhood been handling shot guns 
and rifles, and were used to improvising just such 
ammunition as was most needed then, and who 
could act in an emergency. One of these, Major 
Thomas H. Price, a man admirably fitted for the 
work that had to be done, was put in charge of it. 
Lead, thanks to the proximity of the Granby mines, 
v/as abundant ; powder, too, thanks to the wise fore- 
sight of Governor Jackson ; and the neighboring 
forests were full of trees, which the major knew how 
to convert into monster moulds for making buck- 
shot and bullets. He went zealously to work with 
a corps of assistants, and in a few days his ordnance 
shops were turning out heaps of bullets, and buck- 
and-ball cartridges — enough for the immediate wants 
of the State Guard. No educated soldier, no officer 
of the Ordnance Departm.ent, could have done what 
Major Price did. They are not educated for such 
emergencies, nor could they have found precedents 
or authority for anything that he did. 

How the artillery was supplied with ammunition 
has been well told by Lieutenant Barlow of Gui- 

bor's Battery. " One of Sigel's captured wagons 
16 



242 The Fight for Missouri. 

furnished a few loose, round shot. With these for 
a beginning, Guibor estabhshed an " arsenal of con- 
struction." A turning-lathe in Carthage supplied 
sabots ; the owner of a tin-shop contributed straps 
and canisters ; iron rods which a blacksmith gave and 
cut into small pieces made good slugs for the canis- 
ters ; and a bolt of flannel, with needles and thread, 
freely donated by a dry-goods man, provided us 
with material for our cartridge bags. A bayonet 
made a good candle-stick; and at night, . . . the 
men went to work making cartridges; strapping 
shot to the sabots, and filling the bags from a 
barrel of powder placed some distance from the 
candle. . . . My first cartridge resembled a 
turnip, rather than the trim cylinders from the Fed- 
eral arsenals, and would not take a gun on any 
terms. But we soon learned the trick and, at the 
close range at which our next battle was fought, 
our home-made ammunition proved as effective as 
the best." > 

Generak Price's perplexities were greatly aug- 
mented a few days later (July 19) by the departure 
for Richmond of his able and accomplished adju- 
tant-general. Colonel Little ; for it involved the 
necessity of assigning to that position an officer 
utterly without experience, his chief of ordnance, 
the writer of this book. In spite of all these 
embarrassments the work of organizing, equipping, 



The Confederates Enter Missouri. 243 

and disciplining the State Guard progressed well, 
for never had man seen better material for an army, 
and every one did his best, under the wise guidance 
of the able soldier who, unconsciously to himself, 
was with a master's hand fashioning an army, which 
was destined to win many a victory and never to 
sustain a defeat. 

Before tlie end of July it was ready to take the 
field with an effective strength of nearly five thou- 
and, while two thousand unarmed men were wait- 
ing to pick up and use the arms of those who 
might sicken in camp or on the march, or who 
might fall in battle. 

A few days after the troops had gone into camp 
on Cowskin Prairie, Governor Jackson left (July 12) 
for Memphis, in order to persuade General I^olk, to 
whose command all the country west of the Missis- 
sippi was attached, to send into Missouri a sufficient 
force to repossess that State. For political, as 
well as for military reasons, this was/ a thing 
important to be done; for the State Convention 
had been summoned to meet at Jefferson City 
on the 22d of July, and it was known that one of 
its first acts would be to depose Governor Jackson, 
and that it would then organize a State Govern- 
ment which would wield the power of the State 
against the South. To prevent this great misfor- 



244 The Fight for Missojiri. 

tunc, Governor Jackson, General Price, and the 
State Guard were ready to risk their hves. If the 
Confederate Government had comprehended the 
situation it might, perhaps, have assisted them. 

General Polk did appreciate the importance of 
the movement, and, on the 23d of July, ordered 
General Pillow to take six thousand men of various 
arms from the Western District of Tennessee and 
move with them into Missouri by way of New Mad- 
rid. There he was to be joined by a force of Mis- 
sourians under Jeff. Thompson, and would be fur- 
ther reinforced till he should have an effective army 
of eleven thousand men. Taking these he would 
effect a junction with General Hardee, who was 
to meet him with seven thousand men, whom he 
was concentrating at Pocahontas in Arkansas. The 
combined forces would then cither take Lyon in 
rear while Price and McCulloch were attacking 
him in front, or would march upon St. Louis, cap- 
ture that city and thence sweep up the Missouri! 
" Having driven the enemy from the State, I will 
then enter Illinois," wrote the brave old soldier, 
'* and take Cairo in rear on my return." The army 
which was to execute this magnificent plan of cam- 
paign was aptly called "The Army of Liberation." 
Its advance under General Pillow entered Missouri 
on the 28th of July, and occupied New Madrid. 
The Battle of Bull Run had just been fought, and 



The Confederates Enter Missouri. 245 

the South beh'eved itself to be invincible and irre- 
sistible. 

Having learned that General Hardee had been 
assigned to the command of North Arkansas, and 
that he was concentrating an army at Pocahontas 
on the White River, McCulloch and Price sent spe- 
cial messengers to him, on the 19th of July, begging 
him to co-operate with them in a movement against 
Lyon, who was then at Springfield. These messen- 
gers found Hardee at Pittman's Ferry, within four 
hundred yards of the Missouri line, whence he 
might have easily co-operated in the movement 
against Lyon, either by advancing on Springfield, 
or by threatening to interrupt his communication 
with Rolla, But Hardee, who had not yet out- 
grown the '' little learning " of the schools, nor 
emancipated himself from the tyranny of axioms 
which did not apply in the circumstances wherein 
he was called upon to act, replied: ". . . I have 
actually under my command less than 2,300 men. 
When all the forces in this part of the State are 
transferred, I shall have less than 5,000 men, badly 
organized, badly equipped, and wanting in discipline 
and instruction. One of my batteries has no har- 
ness and no horses, and not one of the regiments 
has transportation enough for active field service. 
. . . I am doing all in my power to remedy 
these deficiencies, but it takes time to eet harness 



246 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

and transportation. I do not wish to march to 
your assistance with less than 5,000 men, well-ap- 
pointed, and a full complement of artillery. With 
every desire to aid and co-operate with the forces in 
the West, I am compelled at this time to forego 
that gratification." There was then with these 
troops a man not bred to arms, but endowed with 
great good sense and enterprise, one who was quick 
to see and prompt to act, and who would have taken 
those men into Missouri, and, uniting with Price and 
McCulloch, would have utterly destroyed Lyon's 
army. But unfortunately for the Confederacy 
Hindman was not in command. 

Before Hardee's letter reached Price, the latter, 
McCulloch and Pearce, were already on the march to 
Springfield. Price left Cowskin Prairie on the 25th 
of July, and reached Cassville on the 28th, Sunday. 
There he was joined by Brigadier-General McBride 
with two regiments of State troops and a company of 
mounted men. This, reinforcement, about 650 men, 
made Price's armed force over 5,000 men. McCul- 
loch reached Cassville the next day with his brigade, 
"amounting to about 3,200 men, nearly all well 
armed." Pearce was within ten miles of Cassville 
with his brigade of 2,500 Arkansas troops. With 
these were two fine batteries, Woodruff's and Reid's. 
The entire force amounted to nearly eleven thou- 



TJlc Confederates Enter Missouri. 247 

sand men. Beside these there were nearly two 
thousand unarmed Missourians. 

As Price, McCulIoch, and Pearce had each an en- 
tirely independent command, they agreed upon an 
order of march, in conformity to which the com- 
bined forces began their movement towards Spring- 
field, fifty-two miles distant, on the 31st of July. 
The advance guard consisting of ten companies 
of mounted Missourians under command of Briga- 
dier-General Rains, and the First Division of the 
forces consisting of infantry and artillery under the 
immediate command of McCulloch, left Cassville 
that day. The other divisions, commanded by 
Pearce and Steen, left the two following days. 
General Price accompanied the Second Division 
without, however, taking immediate command of 
any force. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

LYON MOVES OUT TO ATTACK. 

Junction of Lyon and Sturgis near Clinton — They pursue the Gover- 
nor — Lyon learns of Sigel's Defeat — Hurries to Springfield — Begs 
for Reinforcements — Denounces General Scott — Fremont assumes 
Command of the Western Department — Fails to reinforce Lyon — 
Lyon marches out to prevent the Junction of Price and McCuIloch 
— The Skirmish at Dug Springs — Lyon Retires to Springfield — 
Price induces McCulloch to Advance by relinquishing the Com- 
inand to him — The Confederates Camp on Wilson's Creek — Mc- 
Culloch hesitates to Advance — Price's Urgency — A Council of 
War — A Night March Ordered, and Countermanded — Lyon's Per- 
plexity and Despair — He cannot Retreat — He orders an Attack — 
His Last Letter to his Government. 

Lyon leaving Booneville on the 3d of July 
marched rapidly toward Clinton, some eighty miles 
to the south-west. On the evening of the 7th he 
reached Grand River, at a point a few miles south 
of Clinton. There he was joined by Sturgis, who 
had been waiting for him three or four days. Cross- 
ing Grand River with some difficulty, for it was 
greatly swollen by constant rains, Lyon pushed 
forward with his entire force in pursuit of the State 
troops, not knowing that they had swept Sigel out 
of their path and effected a junction with Price and 
McCulloch. 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 249 

These facts he learned on reaching the Osage at 
a crossing nine miles above Osceola, on the after- 
noon of the 9th. Fearing that Price and McCulloch 
were pursuing Sigel, he ferried his army and his 
trains across the river during the next day and night, 
and, early on the morning of the nth, made in all 
haste for Springfield, which lay eighty miles to the 
south-east. After marching under a blazing July 
sun twenty-seven miles without a stop, he halted 
his column in the afternoon, that the men and horses 
might get much-needed rest, and something to eat. 
At sunset they were all again in motion, and be- 
fore three o'clock in the morning of July the 12th 
were within thirty miles of Springfield. They had 
marched nearly fifty miles in one day ! Here he 
learned that Price and McCulloch had gone toward 
Arkansas, and that Sigel was safe. Moving more 
leisurely now, he encamped that night within twelve 
miles of Springfield, and, early the next morning, 
went thither himself, leaving his army behind. 

The chroniclers of the city still delight to tell of 
the brave appearance that he made that day, as he 
dashed through their streets " on his iron-gray 
horse, under escort of a body-guard of ten stalwart 
troopers enlisted from among the German butchers 
of St. Louis for that especial duty," and how "the 
fearless horsemanship and defiant bearing of these 
bearded warriors, mounted on powerful chargers 



250 TJic Fight for Missouri. 

and armed to the teeth with great revolvers and 
massive swords, their heroic size and ferocious as- 
pect," gave histre to the entry into the chief city of 
the South-west of the grim soldier who had cap- 
tured the State troops at St. Louis, had driven the 
Governor from his capital, had dispersed the army 
that was gathering at Booneville, and had forced 
Jackson and Price and all their men to fly for safety 
into the uttermost corner of the State. 

The force which Lyon now had at and near 
Springfield amounted to between 7,000 and 8,000 
men. But the term of service of some 3,000 of them, 
who had been enlisted for ninety days, would expire 
before the middle of August. The force that was 
confronting him, was, as we know, about 11,000, but 
he estimated it at 30,000. Consequently, on the 
day that he reached Springfield, he telegraphed to 
Colonel Harding, whom he had left at St. Louis, in 
charge of matters at department head-quarters : 
" Governor Jackson will soon have in this vicinity 
not less than 30,000 men. I must have at once an 
additional force of 10,000 men, or abandon my posi- 
tion." Two days later Major Schofield, his adjutant- 
general, wrote to Harding, insisting that all the 
disposable troops at St. Louis should be sent to 
Springfield. The defence of St. Louis, he very justly 
observed, might be left to the Home Guards and to 
the troops which could in a few hours be brought 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 251 

from Illinois and Indiana, as there was no danger 
that any force would move up the Mississippi or 
through south-eastern Missouri so long as a Federal 
army held Cairo. 

Instead of getting reinforcements, Lyon received 
an order (July 16) from General Scott, directing him 
to send eastward two of the companies of regular 
infantry which he had with him, and three companies 
that v/ere at Fort Leavenworth. To this order 
he replied that the moral effect of the few regulars 
in his command was doubtless the main considera- 
tion which held the enemy in check ; that to with- 
draw them would make his position imminently 
hazardous; and that therefore he would hold on to 
them until further instructed. In the same letter 
he complained that the volunteers with him had not 
been paid ; that their clothing was dilapidated, and 
that they were " as a body, dispirited," and would 
not re-enlist. 

To Harding he wrote: ''If the Regulars leave 
me I can do nothing, and must retire, in the absence 
of other troops to supply their places. In fact, I 
am badly enough off at the best, and must utterly 
fail if my regulars all go. At Washington, troops 
from all the Northern, Middle, and Eastern States 
are available for the support of the Army of Vir- 
ginia, and more are understood to be already there 
than are wanted. It seems strange to me that so 



252 TJic Fig] it for Missouri. 

many troops must go on from the West, and strip 
us of the means of defence. But if it is the intention 
to give lip the West, let it be so. It can only be the victim 
of imbecility or malice. Scott ivill cripple us if he can. 
Everything seems to combine against me at 
this point. Stir up Blair." 

Blair laid Lyon's entreaties before Fremont who 
was at New York, and the latter feebly telegraphed 
to the War Department that " General Lyon calls 
for reinforcements." Blair then appealed to the 
Cabinet, whereupon General Scott ordered Fre- 
mont (July 18) to proceed straight to his command. 
On the 25th Fremont reached St. Louis, and as- 
sumed command of The Western Department. 

Lyon had already sent Major Farrar, Captain Cav- 
ender, Colonel John S. Phelps, and others to meet 
him there and explain to him the state of affairs 
in the South-west, and to impress upon him the 
vital importance of forthwith reinforcing the army 
at Springfield. He assured them that five thou- 
sand men would be sent thither as soon as the 
orders could reach them. But an expedition to 
Cairo now occupied Fremont's attention to the 
exclusion of everything else, and it was not until 
the 4th of August that two regiments (Stevenson's, 
at Booneville, and Montgomery's at Leavenworth), 
were ordered to Springfield. Other messengers had 
meanwhile come from Lyon with yet more urgent 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 253 

entreaties " for soldiers, soldiers, soldiers," as Keltoii 
telegraphed to Fremont, who was still at Cairo. 
One of these messengers told him., when he got 
back to St. Louis, that Lyon would fight at Spring- 
field anywa}\ " If he fights," replied Fremont, " he 
will do it upon his own responsibility." 

Lyon learned on the 1st of August that Price, 
McCulloch, and Pearce were advancing upon Spring- 
field. As they had converged toward Cassville by 
three different roads, he was deceived into believing 
that they were marching upon S[)ringfield by three 
different roads. He determined therefore to attack 
them in detail, and started the same day to meet the 
column which was advancing upon the road from 
Cassville. His force consisted of over five thou- 
sand men — infantry, cavalry, and artillery. That 
night he encamped on Tyrcl's Creek about twelve 
miles from Springfield ; and had moved some six 
miles further the next day, Friday, when being 
informed that the Confederates were strongly 
posted some four or five miles farther on, he went 
into camp for the night. 

It was McCulloch's advance guard, under Rains, 
that was in front of Lyon. McCulloch was him- 
self encamped with the rest of his division on 
Crane Creek, about twelve miles south of the spot 
where Lyon was going into camp. 



254 ^-^^^ Fight for Missouri. 

When he learned, Friday morning August the 2d, 
that a Federal force was in his front he requested 
Price and Pearce to move up to his own position on 
Crane Creek. Pearce's divison came up during the 
forenoon. Rains had meanwhile become slightly en- 
gaged with the Federal advance consisting of Steele!s 
battalion of regulars, Stanley's troop of cavalry and 
a section of Totten's Battery. As soon as McCul- 
loch was informed of this, he sent Colonel Mcintosh, 
with one hundred and fifty men to ascertain the po- 
sition and strength of the enemy. Mcintosh, after 
reconnoitring the ground with Rains, concluded that 
the Federals were not in force and started back to 
camp with his men, ordering Rains at the same time 
not to bring on an engagement. Hardly had he 
left, however, when Steele attacked Rains vigor- 
ously, opening upon him Vv^th two of Totten's guns, 
and put the Missourians to flight in the utmost con- 
fusion. The loss on either side was trifling, in this 
skirmish at Dug Springs, but the conduct of Rains' 
command on this occasion caused McCulloch and 
Mcintosh to lose all confidence in the Missouri 
troops, and laid the foundation for that distrust and 
ill-feeling, which eventually separated the combined 
armies, and frustrated all their hopes. 

The next day, August the 3d, Lyon advanced to 
McCulla's store, twenty-four miles from Springfield, 
and within six miles of the Confederate position ; but 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 255 

being unable, after lying there twenty-four hours, to 
learn anything definite about the army in front of 
him, and fearful that the Confederates might with 
their superior force of mounted men flank him and 
cut off his communication with Springfield, he de- 
termined to return thither, and setting out on Sun- 
day reached that place Monday evening. 

Saturday the Confederates were all concentrated 
on Crane Creek, and were reinforced that night by 
Greer's South-Kansas-Texas Regiment. 

While the two armies lay facing each other. 
General Price begged McCulloch to attack, but 
McCulloch, who had now made up his mind not to 
co-operate with the Missourians any longer unless 
Price would yield to him the command of the com- 
bined armies, refused to advance any further, alleg- 
ing as an excuse that the Confederate Government 
had declined to give him leave to move into Mis- 
souri except for the defence of the Indian Territory; 
and that to advance further into the State mio;ht 
endanger the safety of that Territory and subject 
himself to the censure of his Government. While 
this was a very good excuse, it was not McCul- 
loch's real reason for refusing to attack Lyon. He 
had in truth no confidence in the Missouri troops, 
and none in General Price, or in any of his ofificers, 
except Colonel Weightman. Rains he had disliked 



256 The Fight for Missouri. 

from the beginning, and now he was embittered 
against him by an open quarrel which had taken place 
between him and Mcintosh, for whose opinions and 
soldierly accomplishments McCulloch had a venera- 
tion, which made him distrustful of his own capacity 
and which often hampered his action. Neither he nor 
Mcintosh comprehended the serene wisdom of Price, 
his unerring common sense, his magnificent courage, 
and those great qualities which endeared him to his 
troops, nor could they believe that " the undisci- 
plined mob " which Price commanded would under 
his eye fight as well as the veterans of Wellington 
or Napoleon ever fought. He had, therefore, deter- 
mined not to advance another mile except in chief 
command of the entire force. 

Price v/ho saw this clearly enough did not hesitate, 
but went the next morning (Sunday) to McCulloch's 
quarters, taking the writer with him. After vainly 
trying once more to persuade McCulloch to attack 
Lyon, the general said : " I am an older man than 
you, General McCulloch, and I am not only your 
senior in rank now, but I was a brigadier-general in 
the Mexican War, with an independent command, 
when you were only a captain ; I have fought and 
won more battles than you have ever witnessed ; my 
force is twice as great as yours ; and some of my 
officers rank, and have seen more service than you, 
and we are also upon the soil of our own State ; 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 257 

but, General McCulloch, if you will consent to help 
us to whip Lyon and to repossess Missouri, I will 
put myself and all my forces under your command, 
and Ave will obey you as faithfully as the humblest 
of your own men. We can .whip Lyon, and we will 
whip him and drive the enemy out of Missouri, and 
all the honor and all the glory shall be yours. All 
that we want is to regain our homes and to establish 
the independence of Missouri and the South. If 
you refuse to accept this ofTer, I will move with the 
Missourians alone, against Lyon. For it is better 
that they and I should all perish than Missouri be 
abandoned without a struggle. You must either 
fight beside us, or look on at a safe distance, and see 
us fight all alone the army which you dare not attack 
even with our aid. I must have your answer before 
dark, for I intend to attack Lyon to-morrow." 

McCulloch replied that he was expecting dis- 
patches from the East, but would, in any event, 
make known his determination before sundown. 
Toward sunset, accompanied by Mcintosh, he 
came to Price's quarters and informed him that he 
had just received dispatches from General Polk 
saying that General Pillow was advancing into Mis- 
souri from New Madrid with twelve thousand 
men, and that in consequence of this information 
he had concluded to accept command of the com- 
bined armies, and attack Lyon. General Price at 
17 



258 The Fight for Missouri. 

once published an order announcing to his troops 
that he had turned over the command of the State 
Guard to General McCulloch, reserving to himself, 
however, the right to resume command at his own 
pleasure. 

Believing that Lyon was still at McCulla's farm, 
McCulloch marched at midnight, expecting to sur- 
prise and attack him at daybreak. He was already 
some distance on the v/ay when he learned that 
Lyon had left twenty hours previously and was 
retreating to Springfield. Pushing on in great 
haste, though the weather was intensely hot and the 
dust almost unendurable, McCulloch kept up the 
pursuit to Moody's Spring near Tyrel's Creek. See- 
ing then that Lyon had escaped, he halted there ; 
but moved the next morning (August 6) some two 
miles nearer to Springfield, and took position on 
Wilson's Creek, so as to be within reach of some 
ripening fields of corn, which was to be the only 
subsistence of his army for the next day or two. 

Wilson's Creek, rising in, and around, Springfield, 
flows westwardly some five miles and then, turning 
to the south, flows nine or ten miles in that direc- 
tion before emptying into the James, an affluent of 
White River. A mile or so above its mouth it re- 
ceives the waters of Tyrel's Creek, flowing into it 
from the west ; and a mile and a half further north 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 259 

a smaller stream, Skegg's branch, flowing likewise 
from the west, empties into it. The road from Cass- 
ville, on which McCuUoch was advancing toward 
Springfield (known also as the Fayetteville, or Tele- 
graph Road) crosses both Tyrel's Creek and Skegg's 
Branch just above their mouths. After crossing the 
latter, it runs northward along the western bank of 
Wilson's Creek nearly a mile, and then, crossing the 
creek at a ford, turns north-eastward toward Spring- 
field, which is nine or ten miles beyond. 

Between Tyrel's Creek and Skegg's Branch there 
is a considerable valley, partly wooded, lying be- 
tween the Fayetteville Road, and Wilson's Creek. 
In this valley the mounted regiments of Greer, 
and Churchill, and about seven hundred mounted 
Missourians, under Lieutenant Colonel Major and 
Colonel Brown, went into camp. 

Between Skegg's Branch and the ford across Wil- 
son's Creek, the valley through which the road 
passes is quite narrow, and the road runs within a 
few yards of the stream. Toward the west a hill, 
since known as Bloody Hill, rises gradually from the 
creek to the height of nearly a hundred feet, its sides 
deeply seamed with ravines, and dinted here and 
there with sink-holes. At this time it was densely 
covered with undergrowth through which was inter- 
spersed a species of scrub-oak (black-jacks), and near 
its summit the rock cropped out in many places. In 



26o TJie Fight for Missouri. 

the narrow valley between the base of this hill and 
the creek were bivouacked all the infantry of Price's 
command, except Weightman's Brigade. Price's 
quarters were on the road, and about five hundred 
yards south of the ford. McBride, Slack, Clark, and 
Parsons occupied the ground between his quarters 
and Skegg's Branch. 

The hill on the eastern side of the creek rises 
abruptly to the height of about seventy-live feet. 
Upon this hill the infantry and artillery of Pearce's 
Arkansas Brigade were encamped — Woodruff's Bat- 
tery on its northern face near the ford, and Reid's 
Battery on its southern declivity, opposite to Skegg's 
Branch, and the infantry between them. McCul- 
loch's head-quarters were on the hill near Woodruff's 
Battery. The Third Louisiana and McRae's Bat- 
talion, both belonging to McCulloch's Brigade, were 
camped near by, and Weightman's Missouri Brigade 
was half a mile away to the south-east. Mcintosh's 
Regiment (for Mcintosh was colonel of a regiment, 
as well as adjutant-general of the brigade), pitched its 
tents on the east side of the creek just above the ford. 

A mile further up the creek, on the northern 
slope of Bloody Hill, was Rains, with Cawthon's 
Brigade of mounted Missourians; his camps ex- 
tending northward as far as Gibson's Mill. Rains' 
quarters were on the eastern side of the creek, and 
there a few of his men also bivouacked. 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 261 

From Rains, on the extreme left of the Confeder- 
ates, to Churchill and Greer, on their extreme right, 
the distance was just three miles up and down the 
creek. 

While the army lay here waiting for its trains to 
come up, McCulloch would every day sling his May- 
nard rifle across his shoulder and reconnoitre towards 
Springfield, sometimes in force, and sometimes al- 
most alone. But adventurous, daring, and skilful as 
he was, he could learn nothing positive as to either 
Lyon's strength, or as to the defences of Springfield. 
He could not even ascertain whether Lyon had for- 
tified his position at all, or not. To all the entrea- 
ties of Price and the Missourians that he would 
advance he only replied that he " would not make a 
blind attack upon Springfield ; " and, blaming them 
for his own want of success in reconnoitring, told 
them, at last, that he " would order the whole army 
back to Cassville rather than bring on an engage- 
ment with an unknown enemy." 

On Thursday, the 8th, Price received information 
that Lyon was greatly perplexed ; that he was in 
constant expectation of being attacked ; that he 
kept his men under arms all the time ; and that he 
was getting ready to abandon Springfield. Com- 
municating this information to McCulloch, and 
vouching for the credibility of his informants, the 
general again urged him, with great earnestness, to 



262 The Fight for Missouri. 

move straightway upon Springfield. McCulloch 
having promised to consider the matter carefully, 
and to make known his decision that evening, rode 
,once more to the front, rifle in hand, accom.panied 
by Mcintosh and a considerable force. It was late 
when he returned to camp, and he did not com- 
municate his purpose to General Price that night, 
as he had promised to do. 

The general, waking at daybreak, directed the 
writer to see McCulloch instantly, and to ask what 
he had decided to do. I hastened to his quarters, 
and was still talking with him when the general 
himself rode up, his impatience no longer control- 
able, and insisted with great vehemence that McCul- 
loch should keep the promise which he had made at 
Crane Creek, and lead the army out against Lyon. 

McCulloch finally consented to meet all the gen- 
eral officers of the command in council at Price's 
quarters at noon, and then to determine upon some 
plan of action. At this council McCulloch ex- 
pressed great unwillingness to attack Lyon, or to 
enter upon any aggressive campaign. But Price 
declared emphatically that if orders were not forth- 
with issued for a forward movement, he would re- 
sume command of the Missouri troops, and himself 
give battle to Lyon, be the consequences what they 
might. He was warmly seconded by Generals 
Clark, Parsons, Rains, Slack, and McBride that 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 263 

McCulloch yielded at last, and ordered the army to 
be in readiness to move that night (August 9), at 
nine o'clock. Before that time a slight rain began 
to fall, and the order to march was countermanded, 
the ofificers being instructed, however, to hold their 
men in readiness to move at any moment. This 
was wisely done, for most of the Missourians, hav- 
ing no cartridge-boxes, had to carry their ammu- 
nition in their pockets, and if a rain had fallen upon 
them during the march, it would have virtually dis- 
armed three-fourths of them all. 

The Confederates, therefore, lay upon their arms, 
waiting for the order to march. About dawn Gen- 
eral Price sent me to ask McCulloch what he pro- 
posed to do. He and Mcintosh returned with me 
to Price's quarters on the west side of the creek, at 
the foot of Bloody Hill which sloped down toward 
us from the north-west. As our breakfast of corn- 
bread, lean beef, and coffee, was about to be 
served, McCulloch and Mcintosh were invited to 
share it. 

When Lyon got back to Springfield on Monday, 
the 5th of August, he was more embarrassed than 
ever. Not a man had come to him from Fremont ; 
not even a word. Two regiments — the one in Kan- 
sas, and the other on the Missouri — had been or- 
dered to him the day before, but they could not 



264 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

possibly 'reach him in less than a fortnight; and 
before that time the enlistments of one third of his 
men would have expired, and they would hav^e 
returned to their homes. 

' Though he was convinced that he could not, with 
the force at his command, resist the armies which 
were gathering to attack him and whose strength he 
constantly overestimated, he was, nevertheless, loth 
to abandon Springfield and the South-west to the 
Confederates. For he fully realized the great ad- 
vantage which Price would gain by occupying that 
region, which would not only feed and recruit his 
army, but open to him the rich counties on the Mis- 
souri, with their teeming resources and tens of thou- 
sands of volunteers. He knew too that it would 
encourage the Secessionists in every county, and 
dishearten all loyal men, and that it might lose to 
the Union every part of the State, except St. 
Louis. 

But if it were difficult to advance, or to remain 
where he was, it was even more difficult to retreat ; 
it was in fact impossible to retreat. The only road 
open to him was that which led to Rolla, from 
which place there was a railway to St. Louis. 
Between Springfield and Rolla, lay a rough coun- 
try, through which the road ran for one hun- 
dred and fifteen miles over hills, and through 
ravines, and across a hundred streams. How could 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 265 

an army of six or seven thousand disheartened men, 
encumbered by four hundred army wagons, and im- 
peded by crowds of refugees, fleeing with their 
famihes and household goods before the wrath of 
their own fellow-countrymen, hope to retreat over 
such a road, for such a distance, pursued by more 
than twice their own number of men under Price 
and McCuUoch, and harassed and hindered at every 
step by an overwhehiiing force of mounted troops? 

It were surely better to fight than to retreat. 

Accordingly he called his principal ofificers to- 
gether, on the evening of the 8th, explained the 
situation to them, and announced that it was his de- 
termination to move down the Fayetteville Road 
with his whole force at night, surprise the enemy in 
their camp on Wilson's Creek at daybreak, and 
trust everything to the hazard of a battle. The 
next day (Friday, August 9), after consultation with 
Colonel Sigel, he changed this plan, and, instead of 
advancing in a single column, and attacking the 
Confederates in front, ordered Sigel to take the 
Third and Fifth Regiments of Missouri Volun- 
teers, six pieces of artillery, and two companies of 
regular cavalry, the whole aggregating about twelve 
hundred officers and men, and with them turn the 
right flank of the Confederates; while he, with the 
remainder of his force, about four thousand two 
hundred men in all, would move out and turn their 



266 The Fight for Missouri. 

left flank. Sigel was to make the attack as soon as 
he heard Lyon's guns. Both columns were to leave 
Springfield that afternoon about sunset. Before 
leaving, Lyon sent the following letter to General 
Fremont, — his last : 

" I retired to this place, as I before informed you, 
reaching here on the 5th. The enemy followed to 
within ten miles of here. He has taken a strong po- 
sition and is recruiting his supply of horses, mules, 
and provisions, by forays into the surrounding coun- 
try ; his large force of mounted men enabling him 
to do this without much annoyance from me. I 
find my position extremely embarrassing, and am 
at present unable to determine whether I shall be 
able to maintain my ground, or be forced to retire. 
I can resist any attack from the front, but, if the 
enemy were to surround me, I must retire. I shall I 
hold my ground as long as possible, though I may, 
without knowing how far, endanger the sgiety of 
my entire force, with its valuable material, being 
induced, by the important considerations involved, 
to take this step. The enemy showed himself in 
considerable force yesterday five miles from here, 
and has doubtless a full purpose of attacking 
me." 

Not one word about the desperate battle that he 
was to fight on the morrow ; not one fault-finding 
utterance ; not a breath of complaint ! 



Lyon Moves Out to Attack. 267 

But, true to his convictions; true to his flag; true 
to the Union men of Missouri who confided in and 
followed him ; true to himself ; and true to duty, he 
went out to battle against a force twice as great as 
his own, with a calmness that was as pathetic as his 
courage was sublime. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 

Lyon marches out by Night, and surprises the Confederates — The 
Fight in the Cornfield — The Rout of Sigel— The Battle on Bloody 
Hill — The Death of Lyon — His Army retreats — The Dead and 
the Wounded. 

Leaving Springfield about five o'cloc4>: Friday- 
afternoon August the 9th, Lyon moved out about 
five miles on the road to Little York, and then 
turning southward across the prairie came, about 
one o'clock, in sight of Rains' camp-fires, which 
extended northward as far as Gibson's Mill. He 
had completely turned the Confederate left, and 
was in rear of them. Halting his column till 
dawn, he then resumed his march with Plummer's 
battalion of regulars in advance, followed by Oster- 
haus' battalion of Missouri volunteers and Totten's 
battery. 

The Confederates were not yet aware of his 
approach, as they had withdrawn all their pickets 
at midnight. About this time, however, Colonel 
Cawthon, who was in immediate command of 
Rains' mounted brigade, sent out a picket in the 
direction from which Lyon was approaching. 



TJic Battle of Wilsons Creek. 269 

This picket had not advanced more than a mile 
and a half beyond Gibson's Mill, when they discov- 
ered that an enemy was in their front. This fact 
being made known to Cawthon, he sent Colonel 
Hunter with "the effectives" of his regiment, 
some three hundred men, to ascertain whether 
this enemy was advancing in force or not. When 
Hunter reached the picket, about five A.M., the 
head of the Federal column was already in sight. 
His first intention was to attack. But Lyon, 
seeing that his approach was at last known to 
the Confederates and that his further advance 
would be contested, now deployed his men into 
line, sending Osterhaus' battalion to the right 
and Plummer's to the left as skirmishers, and 
bringing the First Missouri up to the support of 
Totten's battery. Hunter thereupon retreated, 
and Lyon moved forward as rapidly as the ground 
would permit. 

Cawthon was meanwhile forming the rest of 
his brigade on the northern slope of Bloody Hill. 
He had about six hundred dismounted men in line. 
When Flunter, falling back before Lyon, reached 
this position, Cawthon ordered him to retire fur- 
ther down the creek and dismount his men, and 
then to return to the field and take position on 
his right. 

But before this was done, Lyon appeared on the 



2/0 TJie F I gilt for Missouri. 

brow of the opposite hill with the First Missouri, 
the First Kansas, and Totten's battery. A brisk 
skirmish took place, and Cawthon was driven back 
over the brow of Bloody Hill, to its southern slope, 
where he was safe for the time. Hunter and 
McCown, who had been separated from him, did 
not rejoin him again till late in the day. 

While Lyon was thus getting into position, 
Sigel had perfectly executed his part of the plan. 
Leaving Springfield about sunset he moved down 
the Fayetteville road about four miles, and then 
making a dctoiir to the left came, about daybreak, 
within a few hundred yards of Wilson's Creek, just 
below the point at which Tyrell's Creek empties 
into it. He had turned the Confederate right 
just as completely as Lyon had turned its left ; 
and at dawn of Friday August the loth the whole 
Confederate force lay between Lyon and Sigel, and 
utterly ignorant of their proximity. 

Having discovered that Greer, Churchill, and 
other mounted Confederates were encamped just 
across the creek from his position, Sigel, in order to 
keep his presence from their knowledge, so disposed 
his men as to capture all stragglers from their 
camp and to arrest every one that was moving 
about. He then posted four of his guns on a hill 
east of the creek in such way as to command 



TJie Battle of Wihoiis Creek. 271 

Churchill's camp, which was hardly five hundred 
yards away. Leaving with these guns a small 
infantry support, he then crossed Wilson's Creek, 
with the rest of his command, just below the mouth 
of Tyrell's Creek ; and facing northward waited for 
Lyon's signal gun. 

Churchill and Greer had, like Rains, drawn in 
their pickets during the night. 

Rains, whose quarters were near his mounted 
brigade (Cawthon's), but on the eastern side of the 
creek, and some distance south of Gibson's Mill, 
had learned, about the time that Hunter went to 
the front, that some sort of a force was coming 
toward him from the northwest. He accordingly 
directed Colonel Snyder, of his staff, to go and 
"see what was the matter." Snyder, on reaching 
the prairie, saw the Federals approaching. Hurry- 
ing back to Rains, he told him that the Federals 
were advancing in great force, " their soldiers and 
cannon covering the whole prairie." Rains ordered 
him to report the facts instantly to General Price. 

It was now nearly six o'clock, and still neither 
Price nor McCulloch, who was then at Price's 
quarters, had any cause to suspect that Lyon had 
even left Springfield. 

Snyder, coming up almost breathless with haste 
and excitement, said that Lyon was approaching 



2/2 The Fight for Missouri. 

with twenty thousand men and lOO pieces of artil- 
lery, and was then within less than a mile of 
Rains' camp. McCulloch, believing that this was 
"one of Rains' scares," told Snyder to say to that 
officer that he would himself come to the front 
directly. In two or three minutes another officer 
came dashing up and said that Rains was falling 
back before overwhelming numbers, and needed 
instant and heavy reinforcements. 

Looking up, we could, ourselves, see a great 
crowd of men on horseback, some armed, and 
others unarmed, mixed in with wagons and teams 
and led horses, all in dreadful confusion, scamper- 
ing over the hill, and rushing dov/n toward us — 
a panic-stricken drove. In another instant, we saw 
the flash and heard the report of Totten's guns, 
which had gone into battery on the top of the hill, 
not more than a thousand yards away, and were 
throwing shot into the flying crowd. And then, in 
quick response, came the sound of Sigel's guns, 
as they opened upon Churchill, Greer, Major, and 
Brown, and drove them in confusion out of the 
valley in which they were encamped and into the 
thick woods that fringed the banks of Skeggs' 
Branch and covered the hills that rose on either 
side of that little stream. 

In a moment McCulloch, followed by Mcintosh, 
was in the saddle and on his way to take com- 





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THE BATTLE FIELD OF WILSON's CREEK. 



Note. — Most of the ground was covered with a dense undergrowth whicli is not 
depicted in the sketch. 



TJie Battle of Wilson s Creek. 



■^/i 



mand of the troops on the eastern side of the 
creek; and Price, having ordered his infantry and 
artillery to follow, was galloping up Bloody Hill 
to take command of Cawthon's brigade, which was 
still falling back before Lyon, resisting him all that 
it could. Price hoped with it to hold the Federals 
in check till the rest of his Missourians could 
come up. 

These were already forming along the Fayette- 
ville road, and were, within a few minutes, hasten- 
ing up the hill at double-quick. Hardly had Price 
gotten Cawthon's men into line under the brow of 
the hill, where they were out of range of Totten's 
guns, and under cover of the trees and dense under- 
growth which shade that part of the field, when 
Slack came up with Hughes' regiment and Thorn- 
ton's battalion and formed on the left of Cawthon. 
Clark followed immediately with Burbridge's regi- 
ment, and took position on the left of Slack. Then 
came Parsons, with Kelly's regiment and Guibor's 
battery ; while on the extreme left of Price's line 
McBride took position wdth his two regiments. 
Slack's command was soon reinforced by Colonel 
Rives, with about seventy dismounted men of his 
regiment ; and half an hour later, Wcightman, 
whose brigade had been encamped a mile or more 
from the rest of Price's infantry, came up with 
Clarkson's and Hurst's regiments, about seven hun- 
iS 



274 The Fight for Missouri. 

dred strong, and fell in between Slack and Caw- 
thon. 

The line thus formed by Price in front of Lyon 
aggregated, with Weightman's command, over 
thirty-one hundred men, with four pieces of artil- 
lery. He was greatly assisted from the beginning 
by Woodruff, who had with true soldierly instinct 
thrown his pieces into battery on the bluff east of 
the ford, at the first sound of Totten's guns, and 
opened upon Lyon a fire, which checked his ad- 
vance and gave the Missourians time to reach Caw- 
thon's position and form their line of battle there. 

To Price's force Lyon opposed the First Missouri, 
the First Kansas, Osterhaus' battalion of Missouri 
volunteers, Totten's six-gun battery (regulars), and 
Dubois' four-gun battery (regulars), aggregating 
nearly nineteen hundred men. The rest of his force, 
except Plummer's battalion, he held in reserve. 

The two lines were not more than three hundred 
yards apart, but they were entirely concealed from 
each other by the intervening foliage. As Price's 
men were armed almost exclusively with shot-guns 
and common rifles, it was imperatively necessary for 
him, near as the two forces already were to each 
other, either to advance more closely to the Union 
line, or to wait till it should approach his own. He 
chose the latter alternative, and awaited Lyon's 
advance. 



The Battle of Wilson s Creek. 275 

He did not have to wait long, for in a few 
minutes the word " Forward ! " was plainly heard, 
and was quickly followed by the tramp of men, and 
by the crackling of the brush through which they 
were coming. When Lyon's Missourians and their 
allies had come within easy range of Price's Mis- 
sourians, out of the ranks of the latter there rang 
upon the air the sharp click of a thousand rifles, 
the report of a thousand shot-guns, and the roar of 
Guibor's guns ; and the battle of Wilson's Creek had 
begun in earnest. Missourians now fought to the 
death against Missourians, on the leafy hill-side; 
while from opposing heights, Totten, who had but 
lately been stationed at Little Rock where his fam- 
ily still resided, fought furiously against Woodruff's 
Little Rock battery, which now turned against him 
the very guns which they had taken from him a few 
months before. 

The battle thus joined upon the hill-side was now 
waged for hours with intense earnestness. The lines 
would approach again and again within less than 
fifty yards of each other, and then, after delivering 
a deadly fire, each would fall back a few paces to 
reform and reload, only to advance again, and again 
renew this strange battle in the woods. Peculiar in 
all its aspects, strange in all Its surroundings, unique 
in every way, the most remarkable of all its char- 
acteristics was the deep silence which now and then 



276 The Fight for Missouri. 

fell upon the smoking field — fell upon it, and rested 
there undisturbed for many minutes, while the two 
armies, unseen of each other, lay but a few yards 
apart, gathering strength to grapple again in the 
death struggle for Missouri. 

Meanwhile McCulloch, upon leaving Price, had 
gone with Mcintosh to the eastern side of the creek, 
where the infantry of his own brigade, and the infan- 
try and artillery of Pearce's were both encamped. 
His first object was to dispose these troops in 
such way as to meet Sigel's attack, the strength and 
meaning of which were not yet developed. In 
order to do this he posted Reid's battery on the 
bluff opposite to the mouth of Skegg's Branch, and 
ordered Walker's regiment to support it. He then 
placed Dockery's and Gratiot's regiments further 
north, along the bluff which forms the eastern bank 
of Wilson's Creek from Skegg's Branch northward, 
to the ford. These dispositions gave him command 
of the crossing of Skegg's Branch, over which Sigel 
would have to advance, if he should undertake 
to attack Price in rear. He then posted McRae's 
battalion, the Third Louisiana, and Mcintosh's 
regiment, of his own brigade, north of Gratiot, and 
on the same bluff. It was upon the northern 
extremity of this bluff that Woodruff had taken 
position and gone into action. 



TJic Battle of Wihoiis Creek. 277 

While McCulloch was still making these disposi- 
tions Woodruff perceived that a part of Lyon's col- 
umn, constituting the extreme left of his line, had 
crossed to the eastern side of the Creek, and was 
moving down its left bank towards the position oc- 
cupied by his battery. As soon as this fact was 
made known to McCulloch he ordered Gratiot to 
the support of Woodruff, and sent Mcintosh with 
his regiment dismounted, the Third Louisiana, and 
McRae's battalion to meet the advancing Federals. 

Mcintosh moved rapidly to the front, keeping on 
the eastern side of the creek. Though covered 
somewhat by Woodruff's guns he was greatly har- 
rassed by Dubois, who hurled grape-shot and shell 
against him from the eastern brow of Bloody Hill. 
Crossing the Fayetteville road he led his men 
through a dense thicket to a large cornfield behind 
whose fence the Federals had taken position. They 
turned out to be Plummer's battalion of United 
States Infantry, supported at a safe distance by 
Captain Wright's Squadron of Home Guards. A 
fierce conflict ensued, the Confederates fighting 
under cover of " the brush," and the Federals be- 
hind the fence. Mcintosh finding that the enemy's 
fire was playing havoc with his men ordered them 
to charge, and leading the way leaped the fence. 
The greater part of his own regiment, and of the 
Third Louisiana, followed him, and they quickly put 



2/8 The Fight for Missouri. 

Plummer to flight, and drove him back to and across 
the creek to Lyon's main body. In the ardor of 
pursuit the Confederates came within close range of 
Dubois' battery, and Osterhaus' battalion, and were 
themselves driven back in some confusion. In this 
engagement, which began about seven o'clock and 
lasted nearly an hour, Plummer, who had about 
three hundred regulars, lost eighty officers and 
men, and was himself severely wounded. Mcintosh 
took about one thousand men into action. His 
losses aggregated over one hundred. 

While this fight was going on Sigel had advanced 
leisurely through the camps out of which he had 
driven the Confederates at sunrise, and had taken 
position with his entire force, some twelve hundred 
men, with six pieces of artillery, near Sharp's house 
on the bluff south of Skegg's Branch. His battery 
occupied a high plateau, and his infantry were 
drawn up on both sides of the Fayetteville road, 
with a company of United States cavalry on each 
flank. It was his purpose to hold this position so 
as to cut off the retreat of " the rebels " when they 
had been put to flight by Lyon. 

McCulloch, after sending Mcintosh to meet Plum- 
mer, had returned towards Skegg's Branch in order 
to look after Sigel. Finding that the further 
advance of the latter was effectually barred by 



TJic Battle of Wilsoiis Creek, 279 

Pearce's Brigade and by a considerable force which 
was rallying under cover of the woods on the north 
side of the branch, he hurried back toward the point 
where Mcintosh was engaged with Plummer. On 
getting there he found that the Confederates had 
won that engagement, and that there was no longer 
any danger in that direction. 

Taking two companies of the Third Louisiana 
that were nearest to him, and ordering Mcintosh to 
bring up the rest, McCulloch now hastened again 
towards Skegg's Branch, determined to attack Sigel. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Rosser had already taken posi- 
tion with his own men, O'Kane's battalion, and 
Bledsoe's battery, on the western side of the Fay- 
etteville Road and north of the branch ; Bledsoe's 
guns being so posted as to completely command 
Sigel's position. 

Sigel and his men were in blissful ignorance of all 
that was happening in their front. For between 
them and the valley, in which their foes were 
gathering, stood a dense wood through whose lux- 
uriant undergrowth no eye could pierce. Now and 
then a skirmisher, or an adventurous officer, would 
make his way to the bluff which overhung the little 
stream, and catch sight of the smoke that darkened 
Bloody Hill, and sometimes one more daring than 
the rest would venture far enough to see indis- 
tinctly what was going on in the upper part of the 



28o The Fight for Missouri. 

valley, towards the ford. At last one of these saw 
a gray-coated regiment hurrying down the road 
toward Skegg's Branch. Knowing that the First 
Iowa wore a gray uniform, he at once concluded 
that this must be the First Iowa, and such was the 
report that he bore back to Sigel. The latter com- 
municated the glad news to his men, and warned 
them not to fire upon their approaching "friends." 
They waved their flags instead, in joyful welcome. 

Just at this moment Reid on the east and Bledsoe 
on the west opened fire upon them at point-blank 
range. "It is impossible for me," says Sigcl, " to 
describe the consternation and frightful confusion 
which were caused by this unfortunate event. 
'They are firing against us,' spread like wild-fire 
through our ranks. l"he artillery men could hardly 
be brought forward to serve their pieces. The 
Infantry would not level their arms till too late." 
The consternation and confusion deepened into a 
panic when about four hundred of the gray-coated 
Third Louisiana dashing up the steep bluff with Mc- 
Culloch and Mcintosh at their head, and Rosser 
and O' Kane's battalion following, broke through 
the thick " brush," and charged right upon the 
Federal Battery. Sigel's whole force took to in- 
stant flight, abandoning five of their six guns, and 
throwing themselves for safety into the bushes 
which lined both sides of the Fayetteville road. 



The Battle of Wilsoiis Creek. 281 

Here they got separated. Sigel and Salomon with 
about two hundred of their Germans and Carr's 
company of cavalry tried to n. ke their way back 
to Springfield by the same route that they came, 
but they were set upon by Lieutenant-Colonel Ma- 
jor with some mounted Missourians and Texans, 
and the Germans, being abandoned by Captain 
Carr who made good his escape, were nearly all 
either killed, wounded, or made prisoners. Sigel 
himself got to Springfield with one man only. An- 
other part of his column made its way to Little 
York and thence to Springfield. 

It was now nearly nine o'clock. Churchill, who 
after being driven out of his camp in the early morn- 
ing by Sigel had quickly rallied his men and taken 
them to the north side of Skegg's Branch and gone 
into the fight on Price's extreme left, was now 
moving to the centre of Price's line, where it was 
hardest pressed. After detailing enough men to 
hold the horses of those that were dismounted for 
the fight he had about five hundred " effectives." 
Forming these in line on the Fayetteville road, 
south of the ford, and within reach of the enemy's 
shot, he led them gallantly up the hill and went 
again into the fight on the left of Slack, and in the 
very front of Lyon's attack. 

The Missourians, thus strengthened where they 



282 The Fight for Missouri. 

most needed strengthening, advanced boldly, Gui- 
bor's guns keeping in line with the Infantry, and 
Woodruff throwing his shot high overhead into the 
midst of Lyon's reserves. 

Lyon, finding that his men were giving way, 
brought forward a section of Totten's battery with 
a strong support to the right and front of his own 
line, and enfiladed the Confederates at two hundred 
yards, Totten and Gordon Granger both helping to 
work the guns. 

McCulloch, who had gone with Churchill up 
Bloody Hill, diverted this fire by returning in all 
haste to the valley and sending Carroll's Arkansas 
cavalry and five companies of Greer's mounted 
Texans to turn Lyon's right and charge these guns 
in rear. The ground was ill-adapted to the opera- 
tions of cavalry, and Greer and Carroll were finally 
driven back. But this movement relieved Price 
nevertheless, and at the same time so increased 
Lyon's anxiety that he ordered the First Iowa to 
the front and brought Steele's battalion of regulars 
to the further support of Totten. 

Up to this time (ten o'clock) the infantry of 
Pcarce's brigade, three fine regiments — Gratiot's, 
Dockery's, and Walker's — more than 1.700 strong, 
had not fired a shot, nor had Graves' Missouri 
regiment, about three hundred strong, that ought 
to have followed Weitjlitman into battle. There 



The Battle of Wilson s Creek. 283 

they lay just across the creek, not half a mile away, 
with nothinc;; to do and doinij nothinj^. 

Price, seeing the absolute necessity of instant 
and decisive action, for Lyon was now bringing 
every available man to the front and doing prodi- 
gies of valor, galloped over to Gratiot, during the 
pause of the fight which occurred in his own front 
while Greer and Carroll were attempting to f^ank 
Lyon's right, and begged him to bring his regiment 
to the help of the Missourians and Churchill. 
Gratiot, who had served under Price in Mexico and 
loved and honored him, did not hesitate an instant, 
but, ordered his regiment to follow Price who was 
already hastening back to his own men, and sent an 
ofificer to tell General Pearce what he had done. 
Pearce came forward at once and overtaking Price 
and Gratiot rode with them at the head of the regi- 
ment as it ran up Bloody Hill. When they drew 
near to the position which they were to occupy, 
Price said to the men : " You will soon be in a 
pretty hot place, men ! but I will be near you, and 
I will take care of you ; keep as cool as the inside 
of a cucumber and give them thunder." Turning 
to Gratiot he said : " That's your position, colonel; 
take it and hold it whatever you do. I v/ill see 
that you arc not too hard pressed. Don't yield an 
inch." 

Gratiot moved, on the instant, towards the posi- 



284 The Fight for Missouri. 

tion which the general had indicated. As he did so 
his regiment came within range of Totten's guns. 
The men passed safely, but the rear of the regiment 
was swept of its field and staff. Gratiot's horse 
was killed and his orderly's too. The lieutenant- 
colonel was dismounted. The major's arm was 
broken. The quarter-master was killed and the 
regimental commissary severely wounded. But the 
regiment kept on and took the position that it had 
been ordered to take — took it, and held it under a 
fire so furious that in less than thirty minutes a 
hundred of its men were either dead or wounded — 
one hundred out of five hundred. 

From the summit of Bloody Hill Lyon could see 
the entire field. It all lay before him, its outmost 
limits hardly a mile away. He knew now that 
Sigel had been defeated, and that the troops which 
had put him to flight would soon be coming, all 
flushed with victory, to join the force which Price 
was getting ready to hurl again against his own dis- 
heartened men. He could see Gratiot hurrying 
even now with more than five hundred fresh troops 
to give vigor to the assault that was about to be 
made upon his own weary men, broken down as 
these were by a long night-march, and by five hours 
of the very hardest fighting ; could see him clamber- 
ing up the hill-side now, himself and his men eager 
to fight under the eye of the brave soldier that was 



Tlie Battle of Wilsons Creek. 285 

leading them to death or to victory. He could also 
see the rest of Pearce's brigade forming on the 
opposite hill and about to bring their bright muskets 
into the thickening fight, muskets that had not 
yet been tarnished by the smoke of battle. And 
all through the valley that lay beneath him he 
could see Missourians, and Texans, and Arkansians 
-^ men who had as yet taken no part in the des- 
perate fight that had been raging since day-dawn, 
— thousands of men, taking heart again as they got 
used to the din of war, and clutching their shot- 
guns and rifles, resolved to be " in at the death." 
He saw all this and more ; and there Avas no hope 
left within him but to dash upon Price with all 
his might and crush him to the ground before 
these gathering forces could come to his help. 

He now brought every available battalion to the 
front. "The engagement at once became general, 
and almost inconceivably fierce along the entire line, 
the enemy " (these arc the words of Schofield and 
Sturgis) " appearing in front, often in three or four 
ranks, lying down, kneeling, and standing, and the 
lines often approaching to within thirty or forty 
yards as the enemy would charge upon Totten's 
battery and be driven back." 

Neither line of battle was more than a thousand 
yards in length. Price guarded carefully every part 
of his own. Wherever the datigcr was greatest and 



286 The Fight for Missouri. 

the battle most doubtful, thither would he hasten 
and there would he stay till the danger was all past. 
In the intervals of the fight he would ride far to the 
front among his skirmishers, and peer into the thick 
smoke which tangled itself among the trees and the 
bushes, and clung to the ground as though it wanted 
to hide the combatants from each other; would 
peer wistfully into it till through its rifts he could 
discern what the enemy was doing, and then his 
voice would ring down the whole length of his line, 
and officers and men would quickly spring forward 
to obey it : for long before the battle was over they 
had all learned that they were fighting under one of 
the best and truest of soldiers, under one who knew 
how to fight them to the greatest advantage, one 
who would expose them to no useless danger, nor to 
any danger which he would not himself share. Many 
a time did they cry out to him as with one voice : 
" Don't lead us. General ; don't come with us ; take 
care of yourself for the sake of us all ; we will go 
without you." Several times his clothing was 
pierced by bullets, one of which inflicted a painful 
wound in his side. Turning with a smile to an 
officer that was near him he said : " That isn't fair; 
if I were as slim as Lyon that fellow would have 
missed me entirely." No one else knew till the bat- 
tle was ended, that he had been struck. One of his 
aids, Colonel Allen of Saline, was killed while re- 



The Battle of Wilsons Creek. 287 

ceiving an order; Weightman was borne to the rear 
dying ; Cawthon and his adjutant were both mortally 
wounded ; Slack was fearfully lacerated by a mus- 
ket-ball, and Clark was shot in the leg. Colonel 
Ben Brown was killed, Churchill had two horses 
shot under him, Gratiot one. Colonels Burbridge, 
Foster and Kelly, and nearly every other field 
of^ficer, were disabled. But in spite of all these 
losses Price grew stronger all the time, while Lyon's 
strength was fast wasting away. 

Walking along his line from left to right en- 
couraging his men by his own intrepid bearing 
and by a few well-spoken words ; rallying them 
where they were beginning to give way; steadying 
them where they still stood to their duty; inspiring 
them with his own brave purpose to make one 
more effort to win the day, while yet there was 
time to try, Lyon had nearly reached the advanced 
section of Totten's battery when his horse, whose 
bridle he held in his hand, was killed, and himself was 
wounded in the leg and in the head. Stunned and 
dazed by the blow, and his brave soul cast down by 
the shock, he said in a confused sort of way to 
those that were nearest that he feared that the day 
was lost. But he came quickly to his senses, and 
ordering Sturgis to rally the First Iowa, which was 
beginning to break badly, he mounted a horse that 
was offered to him, and swinging his hat in the air, 



288 The Fight for Missouri. 

called out to his men to follow. A portion of Mitch- 
ell's Second Kansas, which Lieutenant Wherry 
had just brought again to the front, closed quickly 
around him and together they dashed into the fight. 
The next minute Mitchell was struck down se- 
verely wounded, and almost instantly thereafter a 
fatal ball pierced Lyon's breast. He fell from his 
horse into the arms of his faithful orderly, who 
had sprung forward to catch him, and in another 
minute he was dead. 

The command devolved upon Major Sturgis. 
He called his chief officers together. Price had al- 
ready been reinforced by Gratiot, and now Dock- 
ery's Arkansas regiment and a section of Reid's 
battery were getting into position, and with them 
was the Third Louisiana, which, for the first time 
since its encounter with Plummer in the early 
morning, had been gotten together under its colo- 
nel (Hebert), and was eager to add to the laurels 
which it had already gathered in the fields on which 
it had defeated Plummer, and routed Sigel. 

Sturgis decided to retreat. The order was given, 
and was silently obeyed, Steele's battalion of regu- 
lars covering the retreat, and marching away from 
the field in perfect order. 

It was now half past eleven. Silence had again 
fallen upon Bloody Hill, on whose rough surface 
the dead of both armies lay in great heaps. The 



The Battle of Wilson s Creek. 289 

Confederates, stretched out among the bushes in 
which they had been fighting all day. were waiting 
for the enemy's next onset, or for Price's order to 
attack, and ready for either. Suddenly a cry rang 
along their ranks that the Federals were retreat- 
ing ; that they had already gotten away, and were 
ascending the hill from which they had begun the 
attack upon Rains at dawn of day ; that they had 
at last abandoned the field for which they had 
fought so bravely and so well against unconquer- 
able odds. Springing to their feet they gave utter- 
ance to their unspeakable relief and to their un- 
bounded joy with that exultant cry which is never 
heard except upon a battle- field whereon its victors 
stand. It reached the ears of Weigh tm an — true 
soldier and true gentleman — whose life was fast 
ebbing away in the midst of the men that loved 
him. " What is it? " he asked. " We have whipped 
them. They are gone." " Thank God ! " he faintly 
whispered. In another instant he was dead. Of 
him General Price well said, in his report that : 

"Among those who fell mortally wounded upon 
the battle-field none deserve a dearer place in 
the memory of Missourians than Richard Hanson 
Weightman, Colonel commanding the first brigade 
of the second division of this army. Taking up 
arms at the very beginning of this unhappy contest, 
he had already done distinguished service at the 
19 



290 The Fight for Missouri. 

battle of Rock Creek, where he commanded the 
State forces after the death of the lamented Hol- 
loway, and at Carthage, where he won unfading 
laurels by the display of extraordinary coolness, 
courage and skill. He fell at the head of his bri- 
gade, wounded in three places, and died just as 
the victorious shouts of our army began to rise 
upon the air." 

Nothing could better attest the constancy, the 
courage, and the devotion with which both armies 
fought that day on the wooded summit of the 
Ozark hills, than do the losses which each sus- 
tained. 

In the engagement between Mcintosh and Plum- 
mer, in the cornfield east of the creek, the Federals 
lost eighty of the three hundred men who took part 
in the fight; and the Confederates, who were over 
one thousand strong, lost one hundred and one. 

In the final attack upon Sigel, which McCulloch 
and Mcintosh led, the Confederate loss was trifling, 
but Sigel, whose panic-stricken men were pitilessly 
cut down by the Missourians and Texans who pur- 
sued, lost two hundred and ninety-three men. Of 
these, one hundred and sixty-seven were either 
killed or wounded, and one hundred and twenty-six 
were taken prisoners. These losses were confined 
exclusively to Sigel's Infantry and Artillery, which 



TJic Battle of Wilson" s Creek. 291 

aggregated about one thousand and fifty men. Cap- 
tain Carr's squadron of United States Cavalry which 
formed part of his column was not under fire and 
did not sustain any loss. This fact did not, how- 
ever, prevent Captain Carr from being brevetted for 
gallant and meritorious conduct on the field. 

But it was on Bloody Hill that the main battle 
was fought, and the heaviest losses were suffered. 
There Lyon and Price confronted each other, until, 
after four hours of desperate fighting, Lyon was 
killed ; and still the battle raged for a time, till, 
overwhelmed by ever-increasing odds, Sturgis aban- 
doned the unequal contest, and left the field. 
Here the Union Army lost not only its general, and 
so many of its field ofificers as to come out of the 
fight under command of a major, but of the 3500 
men that went into action nearly nine hundred 
were either killed or wounded. The First Missouri 
alone lost 295 men out of less than eight hundred, 
the First Kansas 284, and Steele's Battalion of 
regulars sixty-one out of 275 of^cers and men. 

The Confederates lost in almost the same pro- 
portion. Of the 4200 men who fought there under 
Price 988 were either killed or wounded. Nearly 
every one of his higher officers was disabled, and he 
was himself wounded. Churchill had two. horses 
shot under him, and lost 197 of his 500 men. 

The total losses of the P^cdcrals during the day 



292 The Fight for Missouri. 

amounted to 1317 officers and men killed, wounded, 
and missing ; that of the Confederates to 1230 killed 
and wounded. 

Never before — considering the numbers engaged 
— had so bloody a battle been fought upon Ameri- 
can soil ; seldom has a bloodier one been fought on 
any modern field. 



CHAPTEK XV. 

MCCULLOCH, PRICE, AND LYON. 

McCulIoch lets the Union Army Escape — Its Flight to Rolla— The 
Confederate Government and McCulloch — His Mistaken Estimate 
of the Missouri Troops — Their Condition and their true Charac- 
ter — Sterling Price — Lyon wins the Fight for Missouri. 

As SOON as it was known that the Union Army 
was retreating General Price urged McCulloch to 
pursue ; but urged him in vain, for McCulloch had 
made up his mind to advance no further into 
Missouri. It was a grave mistake that McCulloch 
made, for the Federals had barely three thousand 
weary and disheartened men, while the Confeder- 
ates had nearly twice that number of fresh troops. 
Twenty-seven hundred of their mounted men, and 
two thousand of their infantry had hardly fired a 
shot, and Bledsoe's and Reid's batteries were both 
intact. ( Besides these there was the Third Louisi- 
ana, a splendid regiment, which could still muster 
five hundred men flushed with their victories over 
both Plummer and Sigel ; and there were McRae's 
battalion, and O'Kane's, which, though they had 
been under fire, had not been scathed. And in ad- 
dition to all these there were two thousand un- 



294 ^/^^ Fight for Missouri. 

armed Missourians, who could have been equipped 
and sent in pursuit before sunset, for now there 
were arms for all, and to spare. 

Price was still entreating McCulloch to advance 
when they were informed that Major Sturgis had 
sent an ofificer under a flag of truce to ask for the 
body of Lyon. They were still on that part of the 
field, where the two armies had come together again 
and again in the shock of battle, and where the 
dead and the wounded of both lay thick under the 
festering rays of an August sun. Even the fact — 
now first made known to them — that the enemy 
had lost their valiant leader did not shake McCul- 
loch's fixed purpose. He would not pursue; but or- 
dered the troops, instead, to care for the wounded 
and bury the dead. 

General Price thereupon directed me to identify 
Lyon's body, and to deliver it to the bearer of the 
flag of truce. It had been borne to the rear of the 
Federal line of battle, and there under the shade of 
an oak it lay, still clad in the captain's uniform 
which he had worn just two months before, when, 
relying upon the strength of his manhood, on the 
might of his Government, and on the justice of his 
cause, he had boldly defied the Governor of the 
State and the Major-General of her forces, and in 
their presence had declared war against Missouri 
and against all who should dare to take up arms in 



McCjilloch, Price and Lyon. 295 

her defence. Since that fateful day he had done 
many memorable deeds, and had well deserved the 
gratitude of all those who think that the union of 
these States is the chiefest of political blessings, and 
that they who gave their lives to perpetuate it 
ought to be forever held in honor by those who live 
under its flag. The body was delivered to the men 
who had come for it — delivered to them with all 
the respect and courtesy which were due to a brave 
soldier and the commander of an army, and they 
bore it away toward Springfield, whither the army 
which he had led out to battle was sadly and sul- 
lenly retreating. 

The Confederates remained upon the field which 
they had won, and ministered to the wounded, and 
buried the dead of both armies. Before the unpity- 
ing sun had sunk behind the western hills, all those 
who had died for the Union, and all those who had 
died for the South, had been laid to rest, uncoffined, 
in the ground which their manhood had made mem- 
orable and which their blood had made sacred 
forever. 

Sturgis, on reaching Springfield about five o'clock 
in the afternoon, turned over the command of the 
army to Colonel Sigel, who was believed to be the 
senior officer. Sigel assumed command at once, 
and, after consulting with his chief subordinates, de- 



296 The Fight for Missouri. 

cided to retreat instantly to Rolla, which was about 
one hundred and twenty-five miles distant. As 
there was a depot of supplies at that point, and a 
railway thence to St. Louis, the discomfited army 
would there be comparatively safe. The enormous 
army train, consisting of over four hundred heavily- 
laden wagons, among whose "spoils" were $250,000 
in gold coin that had been " taken " from the State 
Bank at Springfield, took the road at once under a 
strong escort. The rest of the troops were ordered 
to march at two o'clock in the night, but did not 
begin to move till toward daybreak. They soon 
became so inextricably mixed up with the multi- 
tude of fugitives, who, with their wives and chil- 
dren, their horses and cattle, their wagons and carts 
and household goods, were flying before Ben 
McCulloch, whose very name was then a terror to 
the Union men of Missouri, that they "more nearly 
resembled a crowd of refugees than an army of or- 
ganized troops." In this condition they scampered 
along toward Rolla, and arrived there during the 
evening of the 17th of August, seven days after the 
battle. Sturgis had meanwhile resumed command, 
it having been ascertained that Sigel's commission 
had expired. 

All this time, during all this disorderly retreat of 
a defeated army over difficult roads and through a 



McCulloch, Price, and Lyon. 297 

not friendly population, more than twice its num- 
ber of well mounted, and willing, Southern soldiers 
lay absolutely idle at Springfield. They might 
have easily captured the entire force, and its richly 
loaded train, worth more than $1,500,000, and with 
the captured stores could have armed, equipped, 
and supplied ten thousand Confederates. But 
McCuIloch sulked in his tent, and his army melted 
away. 

Nothing excuses that brave soldier's conduct on 
this occasion except the fact that the Confederate 
Government was then opposed to an aggressive war, 
and therefore objected to the invasion of any State 
which had not seceded and joined the Confederacy. 
In entering Missouri at all he had violated both 
the orders under which he was acting, and the 
wishes of the Confederate Secretary of War, who 
had expressly cautioned him to remember that the 
main purpose of his command was to protect the 
Indian Territory, and had instructed him to assist 
the Missourians only when such assistance would 
subserve that " main purpose." But even these in- 
structions hardly justify McCulloch's refusal to 
gather the fruits of a victory which had been won at 
the cost of so many lives and so much suffering, 
fruits which would have have been so valuable to 
the Confederacy, and which he could have gathered 
so easily and so abundantly. , 



298 The Fight for Missouri. 

He would, perhaps, have pursued even at the risk 
of displeasing his Government, had he not by this 
time become so prejudiced against the Missourians 
as to be wholly unable to recognize the skill with 
which they had been commanded, and the courage 
and constancy with which they had fought on 
Bloody Hill, from the beginning to the end of the 
battle. The distrust which he conceived the first 
moment that he saw their unorganized condition, 
and which had been increased by the behavior of a 
few of them at Dug Springs, had gone on increas- 
ing day by day ever since, and reached its height 
when, through his own fault, his army was com- 
pletely surprised by Lyon and Sigel on the morning 
of the battle. "The fault was theirs;" he said to 
the Secretary of War, " the two extremes of the 
camp were composed of mounted men from Mis- 
souri, and it was their duty to have kept pickets 
upon the roads on which the enemy advanced." 
Though he ought to have known that one of these 
two extremes — the right — was composed of Texans 
and Arkansians of his own brigade, and that in any 
case it was his own duty to have kept his camp 
properly guarded, he unjustly attributed the blun- 
der to the Missourians alone, and distrusted and dis- 
liked them more than ever. Nor could he keep con- 
trasting their condition with that of his own well- 
organized, well-disciplined, well-equipped, and finely 



McCuUocJi, Price, and Lyon. 299 

uniformed brigade, with its full complement of 
quarter-masters, commissaries and ordnance officers, 
unlimited supplies of all kinds, and an overflowing 
army-chest. Many of them had not even enlisted, 
but had only come out to fight ; thousands of them 
had not been organized into regiments ; many of 
them were unarmed ; none of them were uniformed ; 
very few of them had been drilled. Their arms 
were mostly shot-guns and rifles, and they had 
no other equipments of any kind ; no tents at all ; 
no supplies of any sort, and no depots from which 
to draw subsistence, or clothing, or ammunition, or 
anything. They had no muster-rolls and they made 
no morning reports. They bivouacked in the open 
air, they subsisted on the ripening corn, and they 
foraged their horses on the prairie-grass, McCul- 
loch was not wise enough to see that they were, in 
despite of all these drawbacks, true soldiers, as brave 
as the bravest, and as good as the best, and he still 
distrusted them, even after they had unflinchingly 
borne the brunt of the battle for five hours, and 
with the aid of Churchill, Gratiot, and Woodruff, 
had v.'on the main fight on Bloody Hill. 

Both Schofield and Sturgis say in their reports of 
the battle that after the death of Lyon, '' the 
fiercest jmd most bloody engagement of the day 
took place ; " and that then " for the first time dur- 



300 TJie Fight for Missouri. 

ing the day, the Union line maintained its position 
with perfect firmness, till finally the enemy gave 
way and fled from the field ; " that " The order to 
retreat was then given by Sturgis," and the whole 
column moved slowly to the high, open prairie, and 
thence to Springfield. Though these statements 
were doubtless believed at the time, the officers 
who made them would hardly repeat them now. If 
they had " driven the enemy precipitately from the 
field," they themselves would not have fled in such 
trepidation as to leave behind the dead body of 
their heroic commander. 

The Union Army did leave in good order, but it 
left in a hurry ; and Price, instead of being driven 
from the field, was still holding the line that he had 
taken at the beginning of the battle, nor had he 
been driven back one hundred yards from this line 
at any time during the entire day. But it is very 
easy to be mistaken as to what your enemy is doing 
on a battle-field, as any one can see who will take 
the trouble to study the reports of any hotly con- 
tested fight. Federals and Confederates alike made 
many such mistakes. 

It is a noteworthy fact that the little army which 
fought under Lyon against Price and McCulloch fur- 
nished at least seven major-generals and thirteen 
brigadier-generals to the Union. Among the former 



McCidloch, Price, and Lyon. 301 

were Schofield, Stanley, Steele, Sigel, Granger, Os- 
terhaus, and Herron ; and among the latter were 
Sturgis, Carr, Plummer, Mitchell, Sweeny, Totten, 
Gilbert, and Powell Clayton. 

Among the Confederates who became General 
officers in their service were McCulloch, Mcintosh, 
Churchill, Greer, Gratiot, Dockery, Hebert, and 
McRae. Among the Missourians who rose to that 
grade were Price, Parsons, Slack, Shelby, John B. 
Clark, Jr., Colton Greene, and Cockrell. Clark, 
who was one of the most gallant of soldiers, is now 
Clerk of the United States House of Representa- 
tives, and Cockrell is a Senator from Missouri. 
. Out of the dust and smoke and out of the din 
and carnage of the battle Sterling Price emerged 
the leader of his people. Never till now had they 
known him. That he was just and upright, that he 
had been a successful general in the war with Mexi- 
co, that he had governed Missouri wisely and well for 
four years, and was a man to be trusted at all times 
and in all circumstances they knew ; but not till now 
had they seen him display that genius for war which 
fitted him for the command of great armies. Calm, 
quiet and unimpassioned in the affairs of every-day 
life, and somewhat slow of thought and of speech, 
the storm of battle aroused all the faculties of his soul, 
and made him " a hero in the strife." When friends 
and foes were falling fast around him, and Life and 



302 The Fight for Missouri. 

Death waited upon his words, then it was that he saw 
as by intuition what was best to be done, and did it 
on the instant, with the calmness of conscious 
strength, and with all a soldier's might. Of danger 
he seemed to take no note, but he had none of that 
brilliant dash, of that fine frenzy of the fight, which 
men call gallantry, for he was great rather than bril- 
liant. He was wise, too, and serenely brave, quick 
to see, prompt to act, and always right. From this 
time he was loved and trusted by his soldiers, as no 
Missourian had ever been ; and never thereafter did 
he lose their trust and devotion, for throughout all 
the long years of war — years crowded with victories 
and with defeats — the virtues which he displayed 
that day grew more conspicuous all the time, while 
around them clustered others which increased the 
splendor of these — unselfish devotion to his native 
land, unending care for the men who fought under 
his flag, constancy under defeat, patience under 
wrongs that were grievous, justice toward all men, 
and kindness toward every one. 

In its flight from Springfield the Union Army had 
again left the body of its General to the care of his 
foes. These caused it to be decently buried near 
the home of one of his friends. 

Lyon had not fought and died in vain. Through 
him the rebellion which Blair had organized, and to 



McCullocJi, Price, and Lyon, 303 

which he had himself given force and strength, had 
succeeded at last. By capturing the State militia 
at Camp Jackson, and driving the Governor from 
the Capital, and all his troops into the uttermost 
corner of the State, and by holding Price and 
McCulloch at bay, he had given the Union men of 
Missouri time, opportunity, and courage to bring 
their State Convention together again ; and had 
given the Convention an excuse and the power to 
depose Governor Jackson and Lieutenant-Governor 
Reynolds, to vacate the seats of the members of the 
General Assembly, and to establish a State Govern- 
ment, which was loyal to the Union, and which 
would use the whole organized power of the State, 
its Treasury, its Credit, its Militia, and all its great 
resources, to sustain the Union and crush the South. 
All this had been done while Lyon was boldly con- 
fronting the overwhelming strength of Price and 
McCuhoch. Had he abandoned Springfield instead, 
and opened to Price a pathway to the Missouri; had 
he not been willing to die for the freedom of the 
negro, and for the preservation of the Union, none 
of these things would have then been done. By 
wisely planning, by boldly doing, and by bravely 
dying, he had won the fight for Missouri. 



APPENDIX. 



THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 
THE FORCES ENGAGED. 



CONFEDERATES. 

No ONE will ever be able to state with absolute certainty the 
exact strength of the Confederate forces which were at Wilson's 
Creek on the loth of August, iS6i, inasmuch as the records of both 
McCuUoch's and Pearce's Brigades have been lost, and as no trust- 
worthy enumeration of the Missouri State Guard was ever made 
until after the battle. 

The following tables may, however, be relied upon as stating with 
sufficient accuracy the number of officers and men who were " pres- 
ent for duty " on that day — that is to say the number that might 
have been put into the fight. The computation excludes, of course, 
all men without arms, all sick men, and all men detailed as team- 
sters or for extra duty of any kind. 

McCulloch's Brigade. 

McCulloch reported on the 30th of July to the War Department 
that his brigade aggregated about thirty-two hundred men. Whether 
this included Greer's Regiment, which did not join him till the 3d 
of August, I cannot discover ; but it probably did, as the brigade 
reported only twenty-five hundred men "fit for duty" a few days 
after the battle. We know that Churchill's Regiment aggregated 



3o6 Appendix. 

seven hundred and sixty-eight officers and -men "present and ab- 
sent." Of these, nearly two hundred were either absent, sick, or on 
extra duty, and more than seventy-five were detailed to hold the 
horses of those who were dismounted for the battle. This reduced 
its effective strength to about five hundred men, at the time that it 
went into action on Bloody Hill. Colonel Churchill (since then 
Brigadier-general and Governor), informs me that it was hardly as 
strong as that. The Third Louisiana aggregated eight hundred and 
sixty-eight officers and men, but there were not more than seven 
hundred " present for duty." 

Pearce's Brigade. 

The strength of this brigade was greatly weakened by the preva- 
lence of a virulent form of measles. McCulloch said on the 30th of 
July that it numbered about twenty-five hundred men. This is the 
only trustworthy statement that I have seen about it, except that 
Gratiot's Regiment aggregated six hundred and twenty-nine officers 
and men. He tells me that his " effective strength " on the day of 
the battle was less than five hundred. 

The Missouri State Guard. 

Immediately after the battle, I took great pains to ascertain accur- 
ately how many officers and men of this command were " present for 
duty " when the battle was fought. The results are stated in Gen- 
eral Price's report, and in other contemporaneous recoixls, and there- 
fore I am sure that the following Tables are essentially correct so far 
as they relate to the strength and casualties of the State Guard. 
They do not include the unarm.ed men of whom there were about 
two thousand, many of them with their commands. 

It must be borne in mind that in the Confederate Records, this 
battle is known as the Battle of the Oak Hills, which was the name 
given to it by McCulloch. In Price's report it was called the Battle 
of Springfield. 



Appendix. 307 

THE UNION FORCES. 

General Lyon, in a report made to Major-General Fremont on the 
4th of August, estimated his own forces as follows : 

The First Missouri 900 

Osterhaus' Battalion 200 

The First Iowa 9°° 

The First Kansas 800 

The Second Kansas 600 

Steele's Battalion 300 

Plummer's Battalion 35° 

Totten's Battery 84 

Dubois' Battery 64 

Four Companies United States Cavalry 250 

Third Missouri 700 

Fifth Missouri ^00 

Second Missouri Artillery (Sigel) 120 

5,863 
And beside these there were of Home Guards about 1,250 



7,138 



From other Official Records it appears that the force with which 
Lyon left Booneville consisted of 

Brigadier-General and Staff 4 

First Missouri Regiment 895 

Osterhaus' Battalion 211 

First Iowa Regiment 926 

Regulars, Infantry 243 

Regulars, Artillery 75 

Aggregate 2,354 



3o8 Appendix. 

Aggregate brought forward 2,354 

And that Sturgis' Column consisted of Reg- 
ulars 943 

First and Second Kansas Regiments 1,600 

Aggregate 2,543 

In addition to these there was Sigel's Brigade as 

above i , 420 

Making an aggregate of 6,317 

Home Guards 1,250 

7,567 



Schofield, who was then Adjutant-General of Lyon's Army, 
says that the column which Lyon moved out to Wilson's Creek 
"amounted to about four thousand men, besides about two hun- 
dred and fifty Home Guards." Sturgis and others say that it 
consisted of thirty-seven hundred " men " exclusive of the Home 
Guards. Schofield knew better than any one else the force that 
Lyon led out to battle. The apparent discrepancy between him 
and Sturgis is reconciled by assuming that Schofield gives the 
" aggregate " of officers and men, while Sturgis, as the context 
shows, gives "the effective total" of the force, that is to say the 
men, exclusive of officers. 

Sigel's column was generally estimated by the other Union officers 
at thirteen hundred men, but I have followed his own report in the 
main, and put his strength at twelve hundred officers and men. 
The " effective total " of his two infantry regiments was nine hun- 
dred and eighteen men. These, with their full complement of offi- 
cers and his battalion of artillery, would aggregate about ten hundred 
and seventy-five officers and men. Carr's squadron of cavalry would 
raise the aggregate to twelve hundred. 



Appendix. 309 



UNION FORCES AT THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S 
CREEK. 

I. Lyon's Column. 

First Missouri Volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel George L. Andrews. 

Osterhaus' Battalion (two companies Second Missouri Volunteers), 
Major P. J. Osterhaus. 

First Iowa Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel William H. Merritt. 

First Kansas Infantry, Colonel George W. Deitzler. 

Second Kansas Infantry, Colonel Robert B. Mitchell. 

Plummer's Battalion (Companies B, C, and D, First United States 
Infantry and one company Recruits). 

Steele's Battalion (Companies B and E, Second United States In- 
fantry, and two companies Recruits). 

Company F, Second United States Artillerj', six guns. Captain 
James Totten. 

Light Battery, United States Artillery, four guns, Lieutenant John 
V. Dubois. 

Company D, First United States Cavalry, Lieutenant Charles W. 
Canfield. 

Captain Henry C. Wood's Company Kansas Mounted Rangers. 

Captain Clark Wright's Squadron of Home Guards. 



II. Sigel's Column. 

Third Regiment Missouri Volunteers, Colonel Franz Sigel. 
Fifth Regiment Missouri Volunteers, Colonel C E. Salomon. 
Light Battery, six guns, Lieutenants Schaefer and Schuetzenbach. 
Company I, First United States Cavalry, Captain Eugene A. Carr. 
Company C, Second United States Dragoons, Lieutenant Charles E. 
Farrand. 



310 



Appendix. 



UNION FORCES AT WILSON'S CREEK— STRENGTH 
AND CASUALTIES OF EACH COMMAND. 



LYON'S COLUMN. 



/. Jllain Body in fight on Bloody Hill. 

1 First Missouri 

2 Osterhaus' Battalion 

3 First Iowa Infantry 

4 First Kansas Infantry 

5 Second Kansas Infantry 

6 Steele's Battalion 

7 Totten's Batteiy, 6 guns 

8 Dubois' Battery, 4 guns 

Total on Bloody Hill 

//. Left Wing, East of Creek. 

Plummer's Battalion 

///. mounted Reserve. 

Comp'y D, ist U. S. Cavalry] 
Kansas Rangers 
Home Guards 

Total — Lyon's Column. 

SIG 

mtry and Ar 
ipany I, Fin 
ijDany C, Sec 

Total — Sigc 

Lyon's Column 
Sigel's Column. 

Total 



boa. 
< 



775 
150 
800 
Soo 
600 
275 
84 
66 



3> 5 50 204 



300 



350 



4,200 



19 



223 



208 

40 

138 

187 

59 

44 

7 

2 



685 



4 
741 



44 



56 



295 

55 

154 

284 

70 

61 

II 

3 



933 
80 

7 
1,020 



SIGEL'S COLUMN. 












Infantry and Artillery (6 guns) 


1,075 

65 
60 


35 


132 


126 
4 


293 
4 


ComjDany C, Second U. S. Dragoons 




1,200 


35 


132 


130 


297 





4,200 
1,200 



5,400 



223 

35 

258 



741 
132 

873 



56 
130 



1,020 
297 



1,317 



Appendix. 3 1 1 

CONFEDERATE FORCES AT THE BATTLE OF WIL- 
SON'S CREEK. 

I. McCulloch's Confederate Brigade. 

1 Third Louisiana Infantry, Colonel Louis Hebert. 

2 Battalion Arkansas Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Dandridge 

McRae. 

3 First Regiment Arkansas Mounted Riflemen, Colonel Thomas J. 

Churchill. 

4 Second Regiment Arkansas Mounted Riflemen, Colonel James 

Mcintosh. 

5 South Kansas-Texas Regiment (Mounted), Colonel E. Greer. 

II. Pearce's Brigade, Army of Arkansas. 

1 Third Arkansas Infantry, Colonel John R. Gratiot. 

2 Fourth Arkansas Infantry, Colonel J. D. Walker. 

3 Fifth Arkansas Infantry, Colonel Tom P. Dockery. 

4 First Arkansas Cavalry, Colonel DeRosey Carroll. 

5 Company Arkansas Cavalry, Captain Charles A. Carroll. 

6 Light Battery, Captain W^m. E. Woodruff, 4 guns. 

7 Light Battery, Captain J. G. Reid, 4 guns. 

III. The Missouri State Guard, Major-General Sterling 
Price. 

1 Brigadier-General James S. Rains' command. 
Infantry Brigade, Colonel Richard II. Weightman. 
Mounted Brigade, Colonel Cawthon. 

2 Brigadier-General Monroe M. Parsons' command. 

3 Brigadier-General John B. Clark's command. 

4 Brigadier-General William Y. Slack's command. 

5 Brigadier- General James H. McBride's command. 

Note.— The Missouri commands were territorial, each brigadier-general 
having command of the troops raised within his military district. Parsons, 
Clark, and McBride had respectively only 531, 552, and 649 officers and men on 
the field, and Slack only 940, but their commands were called divisions. 
Their regiments consisted of only eight companies of fifty men each, present 
and absent. 



312 



Appendix. 



STRENGTH AND CASUALTIES OF THE CONFEDERATE 
FORCES AT WILSON'S CREEK. 



/. JMcCiilloclis Brigade 

Third Louisiana Infantry 

McRae's Battalion 

Churchili's Regiment 

Mcintosh's Regiment 

Greer's Regiment 



//. Pcarces Brigade. 

Gratiot's Regiment 

Walker's Regiment 

Dockery's Regiment 

Carroll's Regiment 

Carroll's Company 

Woodruff's Battery, 4 guns. . 
Reid's Battery, 4 guns 



///. The Missowi State Guard. 

Rains' Command 

Parsons' Command 

Clark's Command 

Slack's Command 

McBride's Command 



Resjtme. 

T. McCulloch's Brigade 

II. Pearce's Brigade . . . . 

HI. Missouri State Guard 

Total 






700 
220 
600 

400 



2,720 



500 

550 

650 

350 

40 

71 

73 



2,234 



68 



36 



6 

155 
44 
23 



276 



84 



118 



12 


I 




2,537 


59 


186 


531 


17 


51 


552 


23 


86 


940 


43 


114 


649 


32 


ii8 


5,221 


175 


557 



2,720 
2,234 
5,221 


68 
36 

175 


276 
118 

557 


10,175 


279 


951 



^a 



57 

9 

197 

54 
27 



344 



109 



14 
27 



154 



3 

245 
68 
109 
157 
150 



732 



344 
154 

732 



1,230 



Appendix. 



313 



THE MISSOURI STATE GUARD AT WILSON'S CREEK. 



Major-General Price and Staff. . 
/. Rains' Command 

1 Weightman's Brigade, 3 guns. 

2 Cawthon's Brigade 

//. Parsons' Command 

1 Kelly's Regiment (6 Cos.) . . . 

2 Brown's Regiment ) 

and 3 Companies j 

3 Guibor's Battery, 4 guns . . . . 

///. Clark's Command 

1 Burbidge's Regiment 

2 Major's Battalion 

IV. Slack's Command 

1 Hughes' Regiment 

2 Thornton's Battalion 

3 Rives' Regiment 

V. McBiide's Command. . . . 

1 Wingo's Regiment 

2 Foster's Regiment 

3 Campbell's Company 



Ui a;l-l 



Infty. & Art'y 
Mounted 



Infantry 
Mounted 
Artillery 



Infant) y 
Mounted 



Infantry ) 
Infantry ) 
Mounted 



Infantry ) 
Infantry f 
Mounted 



1,316 
1,210 



142 

320 

61 



270 

273 



650 
284 



605 
40 

5.221 





■a 


y. 


•a 




3 


w 







is 


I 


2 




I 


40 


120 


21 


66 


II 


3S 


3 


2 


3 


II 




2 


17 


81 


6 


5 


I 


I 


36 


106 


4 


8 


32 


114 


17s 


557 






3 
I 

160 

87 



49 

5 

14 

2 
98 



142 



146 



732 



314 



Appendix. 



CONFEDERATE TROOPS ENGAGED ON BLOODY HILL. 



/. Missowi State .Guard. 

General and Staff 

/Gains' Command. 

Weightman's Brigade (2 Regim'ts) 
Cawthon's Brigade, Dismounted.. 

Parsons' Command. 

Kelly's Regiment 

Guibor's Battery, 4 guns 

dark's Command 

Burbidge's Regiment 

Slack'' s Command 

Hughes' Regiment and ) 
Thornton's Battalion ) 
Rives' Regiment, Dismounted.. . . 

I\I i Bride s Command 

Wingo's and Foster's Regiments. . 



//. Arkansas Troops. 

Churchill's Regiment 

Gratiot's Regiment ) ^^^^^ 
Woodruff's Battery S 

Total 

Missourians 

Arkansians 

Confederates on Bloody Hill. 
Union Force on Bloody Hill. 






12 
II 

720 

600 

8 

142 

61 

9 

270 

6 

650 

70 
4 

605 



3.168 



1 

5 


-a 

•a 

c 

§ 


I 


2 




I 


38 


97 


19 


Co 


II 


38 


3 


11 




2 


17 


81 


I 


I 


36 


106 


3 


6 


32 


114 


161 


519 



500 

571 



1,071 



3,i6S 
1,071 



4.239 
3-550 



68 



161 

68 



229 
204 



155 
85 



240 



519 
240 



759 
685 



O cd 



3 
I 

135 
79 

49 

14 

2 

98 
2 

142 

9 

146 



680 



197 
III 



308 



680 
308 



988 
892 



Appendix. 



315 



FORCES WHICH FOUGHT EAST OF THE CREEK. 






II 


•d 

5 


T3 

<U 

■a 
c 
3 







UNION FORCE. 

Plummer's Battalion 


300 


19 


52 


9 


80 






CONFEDERATE FORCE. 


400 


9 
10 


4S 
44 




57 
54 


Mcintosh's Regiment 




I 100 


19 


92 


III 



CONFEDERATE COMMANDS WHICH WERE ONLY 
SLIGHTLY ENGAGED. 



o si 



/. Infantiy. 

Graves' Regiment, Mlssourlans. . 
Rosser's Command, Mlssourlans 
McRae's Battalion, Arkansians . 
Dockciy's Regiment, Arkansians 
Walker's Regiment, Arkansians. 

//. Mounted Men. 

Missourians 

Texans 

Arkansians 

///. Artillery. 

Reid's Battery, 4 guns 

Bledsoe's Battery, 3 guns 



Aggregate 
Present. 




■a 

u 
■a 
c 
3 

1 


271 






300 


2 


23 


220 


3 


(J 


650 


3 


II 


550 






1,447 

800 


10 

4 


7 
23 


390 


5 


22 


73 






35 






4,736 


27 


92 



25 

9 
14 



17 
27 

27 



119 



Note. — Rosser's Command, which formed part of Weightman's Brigade, 
consisted of fifty men of his own regiment, O'Kane's Battalion (Major 
Thomas H. Murray), and Bledsoe's 3-gun Battery. Bledsoe's losses are in- 
cluded in Rosser's. 



INDEX, 



Alabama, 35, 59, 73. 
Allen, George W. , 286. 
Anderson, Robert, 8-1 1, 29, 141. 
Andrews, George L. , 166, 309. 
Arkansas, 73, 144, 161, 194, 195, 

229, 234. SiV Pearce's Brigade 

and McCulloch's Brigade. 
Armstrong, David H., 197. 
Arsenal, St. Louis, 100-118, 124- 

138, 147-157. 
Arsenal, Liberty, 148, 152, 156, 

185. 
Atchison, David R., 53, 224. 

Backoff, Major, 211, 225. 
Barlow^, Wm. P., 217, 241. 
Barret, J. Richard, 197. 
Barret, Overton W., iii. 
Bast, G. Y.,8i. 

Bates, Edward, 57, 184, 189, 219. 
Battles, etc. : 

Booneville, 211-15. 

Carthage, 222-228. 

Cole Camp, 216. 

Dug Spring, 254, 298. 

Rock Creek, 208, 209, 289. 

Wilson's Creek, 268-315. 
Black, J. S., 8. 
Blair, Jr., Francis P., 57, 58, 64- 

66, 68, 96, 104-106, 126, 129, 

130, 131, 135-137, 154-157, 

160, 164-169, 176, 183, iSS- 

194, 198-200, 203, 214, 219, 

220, 230, 252, 302. 
Blair's Regiment, 165, 211, 269, 

274, 291, 307, 309, 310. 
Blair, Montgomery, 156, 189. 
Blaine, James G., 89, 141, 142. 
Bell, John, 12. 



Bell, Wm. H., ico, 114-117. 
Bernays, Dr., 189. 
Beauregard, P. G. T. , 73. 
Benton, Thomas H., 17, 8g. 
Bledsoe, Hiram, 219, 224, 279, 

280, 293, 313, 315. 
Bledsoe's Battery. ^6' Bledsoe. 
Breckinridge, John C. , 12, 31, 

183. 
Boernstein, Henry, 2. 
Boernstein's Regiment, 211. 
Border Slave States, 20, 42-44, 

59, 70, 81, 92, 143. 
Bowen John S., 149, 152, 171. 
Booneville, 206-215. 
Brown, Joseph E., 34. 
Brown, JB. Gratz, 210. 
Brown's Regiment, 219, 225-6, 

259, 272, 313, 314. 
Brown, Benjamin, 287. 
Brownlee, John A., 137, 147, 148, 

155- 

Broadhead, James O., 79, 81, 87, 
88, 105, 165, 169, 190. 

Buchanan, James, 4-1 1, 27-29, 
35, 36, 70. 102, 116, 130. 

Buckner, A. H., 61. 

Bulletin, The, 54. 

Burbridge John Q.,217, 219, 225, 
273- 287, 313, 314. 

Burbridge's Regiment. Sec Bur- 
bridge. 

Cairo, 194, 221, 252. 

Camp Jackson, 149, 152, 163-172, 

178, 181, 214, 260, 262, 303. 
Cameron, Simon, 142, 154, 156, 

164, 190, 191. 
Campbell, Robert, 44. 



3i8 



Index. 



Carlisle, James H., 137, 155. 

Carr, Eugene A., 221, 281, 291, 
301, 308-310. 

Carroll's Regiment (De Rosey), 
236, 282, 283, 311,312, 315. 

Campbell's Company, 313. 

Carroll's (Charles A.) Company. 

Cartilage. See Battles, etc. 

Cass, Lewis, 8. 

Cassville, 246. 

Cavvthon, Colonel, 219, 260, 268, 
274, 287, 311, 313, 314. 

Cawthon's Brigade. See Cavv- 
thon. 

Champion, Rock, no, 133. 

Claiborne, N. C, 67, 75. 

Clark, John B., iSi. 184, i8c, 
207-9, 215, 219, 225-6, 260, 
262, 273. 287, 311-14. 

Clark, Jr., John B., 301 

Clark, M. Lewis, 1S4. 

Clayton, Powell, 301. 

Clarkson's (J. J.) Regiment, 273. 

Crane Creek, 253, 254. 

Crittenden's Compromise, 5, 6, 
45, 56,81. 

Coalter, John D., 60. 

Cobb, Howell, 8. 

Cockrell, Francis M., 301. 

Coercion, 4, 7, 21, 26, 32, 33, 36, 
37,40, 42-46,50,51,55,63, 64, 
70, 7r, 74, 76, 81-88, 178. 

Cotton States, 4, 6, 16, 20, 29, 143. 

Cole Camp, 216. 

Conant, Horace L., 198, 200. 

Conditional Union Men, 53-56, 
61-64, 83. 

Confederate Government, 59, 72, 
139-140, 161, 167, 168, 207, 
231-5, 244, 297-8. 

Congress, U. S., 4, 70, 73. 

Conrad, Captain, 223, 237. 

Conrow, A. IL, 75. 

Conventions. See Missouri, Nash- 
ville, Wheeling, and Peace Con- 
gress. 

Cook, Colonel, 216. 

Cooke, Wm. M., 147, 151. 

Cowskin Prairie, 235, 239, 246. 

Cunningham, J. F. , 51. 

Curtis, Samuel R., 195, 221. 



Churchill, Samuel B., 67. 
Churchill, Thomas J. See 

Churchill's Regiment. 
Churchill's Regiment, 229, 230, 

235-7, 259, 261, 270-2, 281-3, 

291, 298, 299, 301, 305, 306, 

311, 312, 314. 

Davis, Jefferson, 72, 139-140, 150, 

167-8. 
Departments, Military, 99. 

of the Ohio, 2ig. 

of the West, 99, 156, 

157,180,189-192, 

219. 

Western, 220, 252. 

Deitzler, Geo. W., 160, 195, 309. 

Dick, Franklin A., 167, 188, 189. 

Dockery's (Tom P.) Regiment, 

276, 282, 288, 301, 311, 312, 

315- 
Doniphan, Alexander W., 54, 60, 

81, 183, 184. 
Douglas, Stephen A., 12, 31, 89, 

143, 160, 182. 
DuBois' (John V.) Battery, 274, 

277. 278, 307, 309. 310. 
Dug Spring, 254, 298. 

Duke, Basil Wilson, 108, iii, 133, 
136, 148, 150, 155, 167, 168. 

Essig's (Christian) Battery, 226, 

227. 
Everett, Edward, 41. 
Examiner, The, 54. 

Freeman, Thomas W., 67. 
Filley, Oliver D., 33, 34, 90, 105, 

165, 169. 
Fremont, John C, 220, 252, 253, 

263, 266. 
Forts, Leavenworth, 160, 194, 195, 
209, 221. 
Smith, 229. 
Scott, 231, 232. 
Sumter, 9-11, 28, 38, 140, 

141. 
Southern, 7-1 1, 27-29, 34, 
35-38. 
Foster, Colonel, 287. 
Foster's Regiment, 313-314. 



Index. 



319 



Florida, 35, 38, 59. 73- 
Floyd, John B., 9, 10. 
Frost, Daniel M., 111-I16, 147- 

152, 163-4, 17O) lyi- 
Frost's Brigade, 111-113, 134, 

149, 154, 161, 166, 170, 171. 
Fugitive Slave Law, 3, 62, 159. 

Gamble, Hamilton R., 44, 54, 56, 

79, 81, 1S3, i8g, 219. 
Gantt, Thomas T., 197. 
Granger, Gordon, 222, 282, 301. 
Gratiot, John R., 236, 283, 287, 

301. 
Gratiot's Regiment, 236, 276, 277, 

282-4, 288, 299, 306, 311, 312, 

314- 
Graves' (John R.) Regiment, 2S2, 

315- 
Georgia, 34, 59, 69, 73. 
Germans, 65, 105, l6(), 171, 174, 

175, 207, 249. 
Glenn, Luther J., 69-72. 
Greeley, Horace, 6. 
Green, James S., 53, 88-90, 1S3. 
Greene, Colton, 109, 133-135, 148, 

150, 167, 168, 230, 301. 
Greer's Regiment, 229, 255, 261, 

270, 272, 281-3, 290, 29S, 301, 

305, 311, 312, 315. 
Gibson's Mill, 260, 268, 269. 
Gilbert, C. C., 301. 
Glover, Samuel T., 105, 165, 169, 

170. 
Guibor, Henry, 217, 242. 
Guibor's Battery, 217, 219, 224-5, 

273, 275, 313, 314. 

Hagner, Peter V., 117, 118, 124, 
125, 127, 128, 130-132,137, 154. 

Hall, Wm. A., 54, 56, 62, 81, 82, 
197. 

Halliburton, Wesley D., 50. 

Hardee, Wm. J., 73, 244 6. 

Harding, Chester, 166, 167, 212, 
250, 251. 

Harding. James, 162, 206, 240. 

Harney, Wm. S., 99-100, 125,127, 
129, 130, 135, 137, 152, 155- 
157, 167, 170, 175-180, 1S6- 
194, 196. 



Harris, Thomas A., 51, 68, 70, 76, 

77- 
Hatcher, Robert A., 81. 
Hazlitt, Dr., 156. 
Hebert, Louis. Sec 3d Louisiana. 
Henderson, John B., 79, 81, 83. 
Herron Frank J., 301. 
Hindman, Thomas C., 246. 
Holt, Joseph, 10. 
HoUoway, Edmunds B. , 2Cg. 
Home Guards, 68, 104-6, 126,127, 

133-7. 154-7. iC>5. it6, 174- 

176,195, 204,216, 222, 307-310. 
How, John, 136, 165, 169, 170. 
Hough, Harrison, Co, 81. 
Hudgins, Prince L., 81, 84-86. 
Hughes' Regiment (John T.), 219, 

273, 313, 314- 
Hunter's Regiment (D. W. C.), 

269, 271. 
Hursts' Regiment (Edgar V.), 273. 

Illinois, JQ, 160, 191, 194, 195. 
Indian Territory, 194, 220, 231. 
Iowa, i6c, iSo, igi, 194. 
Iowa Infantry, First (Bates), 195, 

280, 282, 287, 307, 309, 310. 
Iowa Infantry, Second (Curtis), 

195, 221. 

Jackson, Claiborne F., 17-26, 31, 
53. 66-70, 74, 94, 96, 106, 113, 
147-153, 162, 163, 167, 168,172, 
173, 1S4, 1S6, 187, 191, 196- 
208, 212-19, 222-224, 230, 237, 
238, 243, 244. 303. 

Jefferson City, 185, 211. 

Johnson, Waldo P., 60, 8g. 

Kansas, 160, 191, 194, 229, 231. 
Kansas Infantry, First, 195, 209, 

221, 270, 291, 307-10. 
Kansas Infantry, Second, 195,209, 

221, 288, 307-10. 
Kansas Rangers, 309, 310. 
Kelly's Company, 163, 164, 185, 

186, 188, 209, 212. 
Kelly's Regiment, 219, 225, 273, 

2S7, 313. 314- 
Kentucky, 44, 144, 161 
Kelton, John C, 254. 



320 



Index. 



Lamar, 218. 

Lane, James H., 231. 

Lawson, L. M., 74, 75. 

Lawton, Alex. R., 35. 

Letcher, John, 42. 

Lexington. 207, 209, 215. 

Lincohi, Abraham, 3, 12, 74 
141, 153, 154, 160, 165, 
188-195. 

Little, Henry, 242. 

Louisiana, 37, 59, 73. 

Louisiana Infantry, Third, 
230,234, 260, 276-80,288 
301, 306, 311, 312, 315. 

Lyon, Nathaniel, 1 19-138, 
153-157, 160, 163-175,183 
204, 210-15, 219-222, 236 
248-258, 261-7, 268-78, 2 
291-5, 298-303, 307-310. 



137. 
181, 



229, 

293, 

,iS8- 
, 245, 
Si-S. 



Macdonald, Emmet, 172. 

McBride, James H., 184, 246, 260, 
262, 273, 311-14. 

McClellan, Geo. B., 219-221. 

McCovvn, James, 270. 

McCoy, Arthur, 133-135. 

McCulla's Store, 254, 258. 

McCuUoch, Ben., 72, 194, 211, 
215, 216, 222, 229-39, 245-7, 
253-63, 271, 272, 276-80, 290, 

293-303- 
McCulloch's Brigade, 305, 306, 

311-312, 314, 315. 
McCulloch, Robert, 1S5, 186. 
McGrath, M., 186. 
Mcintosh, James, 231, 237, 254, 

255, 260-3, 272, 276-280, 290, 

301, 311, 312, 315. 
Mclntyre, D. H., 185, 186. 
McKinstry, Justus, 188. 
McLaren, Charles, 137, 155. 
McRae's Battalion (Dandridge), 

260, 276, 277, 293, 301, 311, 

312, 315- 
Magoffin, Beriah, 44. 
Major's Battalion, James P., 259, 

272, 281, 290, 313. 
Marmaduke, John S., 186, 208, 

212, 213. 
Maryland, 42, 161. 
Massachusetts, 73. 



Minute Men, 109-111, i'^3-i35, 

178. 
Missouri, 13-16, 22, 29, 32, 44, 
58, 62, 63, 69, 76, 79, 
144, 206, 297, 303. 
Compromise, 3, 5, 46, 

56, 57; 

Convention, 33, 46, 47, 
53, 66, 69, 78-98, 126, 

183, 196, 243, 302. 
General Assembly, 12, 

46-52, 66-72, 74-77, 
88-94, 103, 129, 151, 
160-163. 172, 173, 
180, 303. 

Governor, See Jackson. 

Military Bill, 33, 67, 74- 
77,106, 173, 177, 179, 

184, 188, 203. 

State Guard, 179, 184- 
188, 190, 195-7, 203, 
207, 209, 238-243, 
258, 298, 299, 305, 
306, 311-315- 

Missouri Volunteers (Union), 165, 
166, 195. 

Minnesota, 39, 180. 

Mississippi, 38, 47, 59. 

Mitchell, Robert, 195, 288, 301, 

309- 
Merritt, Wm. H., 309. 
Monroe, Thomas, 223, 224. 
Montgomery, James, 160, 212. 
Morris, Walter B., 51. 
Moss, James H., 81, 82, 83. 
Murray, Thomas H., 216, 315. 

Nashville Convention, 59. 
Neosho, 222, 237. 
New Madrid, 244, 257. 
New York, 38, 39. 
Neutrality, Armed, 16, 95. 
North Carolina, 144, 161. 
Northern Democrats, 6, 143, 158- 
160. 

Ohio, 39. 

O'Kane. Walter S., 216. 

O'Kane's Battalion, 279, 280, 

293. 315. 
Osterhaus, P. J., 301. 



Index. 



321 



Osterhaus' Battalion, 26S, 274, 
278, 397, 3og, 310. ^■(vBoern- 
stein's Regiment. 

Parsons, M. M., 67, 68, 103, 184, 
208, 209, 212, 215, 219, 223-7, 
260, 262, 273, 301, 311- 314. 

Partridge, George, 51. 

Paschall, Nathaniel, 44, 54, 56. 

Planter's House Conference, 197- 
200. 

Peace Congress, 60. 

Pearce, N. B., 230, 235-9, 254, 
284. 

Pearce's Brigade, 230, 236, 246, 
247, 253, 260, 276, 282-288, 305, 
306, 311, 312, 314, 315. 

Peckham, James, 51. 

Pennsylvania, 39. 

Phelps, John S., 54. 

Prentiss, B. M., 221. 

President. Sec Buchanan, Davis, 
Lincoln. 

Price-Harney Agreement, 186- 
192, ig6, 202. 

Price, Sterling, 54, 78, 81, 92, 
181-1SS, 196, 203, 207-9, 215- 
21S, 222, 234-47, 252-7, 260-3. 

Price, Thomas H., 241, 244, 257, 
271-6, 281-91, 293-4. 

Pillow, Gideon J., 300, 303, 306, 

311-314- 
Pritchard, Colonel, 154. 
Polk, Leonidas, 243, 257. 
Polk, Trusten, 53, 84. 
Proclamations. 

Harney's, 177-179. 

Jackson's, 200-206. 

Lyon's, 220. 

Lincoln's, 141, 142. 
Plummer's Battalion (Joseph B.), 

268, 269, 277-9, 288, 290, 293, 

301, 307, 309, 310. 

Quinlan, James, 133, 135. 

Rains, James S., 67, 184, 215, 216, 
218, 224-7, 253-5, 260-262, 
268, 271, 272, 289,311-314. 

Randolph, Beverly, 184. 

Rector, Henry M., 232. 



Redd, John T., 81, 86-7 

Reid. John, 240. 

Reid's Battery (John. G.), 246, 

260, 276, 280, 28S, 293, 311, 

312, 315. 
Republican, The, 45, 46, 54, 144, 

147, 149, 161, 162, 179. 
Reynolds, Thomas C, 30-33, 48, 

49. 53, 303- 
Rives' (B. A.) Regiment, 219, 225- 

6, 273, 313, 314. 
Robertson, John, 60. 
Robinson, Lt. 
Rogers, Charles S., 287. 
Rollins, James S., 61, 183. 
Ross, John, 230. 

Rosser, Thomas H.,279, 2S0, 315. 
Russell, Dan. K., 47-50. 
Rolla, 264, 296. 

Salomon's Regiment, (C.E.), 210, 

225, 265, 281, 307-310. 
Shaler, James. R., iii, 16S. 
Slack, Wm. Y., 215, 21S, 219, 

224-6, 260, 262, 273, 281. 287, 

3or, 311-14. 
Stanley, David S., 221, 301. 
Stanton, Edwin M., 8, 28. 
St. Louis, 44, 90, 94, 95, 174-6, 

179, 195. 
Star of the West, The. 28. 
St. Louis Police, 90,91, 136, 137. 
Secessionists, 53, 55, 69, 90, 94, 

95, 106, 129, 175, 181. 
Shelby, Joseph O., 224, 301. 
Steele's Battalion (Frederick), 160, 

222, 254, 301-307, 309, 310. 
Steen, Alexander E , 236, 247. 
Stephens, A. H., 139, 140. 
Stevenson, Jno. D., 48, 49, 66, 

220, 252. 
Stewart, Robert M., 12-17, 2S, 

26. 
Sweeny, Thomas \V., 166, 211, 

222. 
Sigel, Franz, 210, 222, 225-8, 

236, 248, 249, 265, 266, 270-2, 

276-8T, 288, 290, 291, 293, 295, 

296, 298, 301, 307-310. 
Springfield, 210, 211, 249, 250, 

264. 



322 



Index. 



Switzler, Wm. F., 145, 146. 
South Carolina, 4, 7-ri, 21, 59, 

60. 
Schofield, John M., 166, 221, 250, 

285, 299, 301, 308. 
Scott, Winfield, 8, 28, 103, 117, 

12S, 130, 131, 152, 165, 177, 

180, 219, 251, 252. 
Sturgeon, Isaac H., 101-104, 

107, 116, 117, 128. 
Sturgis, S. D., 160, 221, 222, 236, 

248, 285-28S, 291, 294-6, 299- 

301, 308. 
Submissionists, 64, 67, 68, 161. 
Snyder, John F., 271, 272. 

Taylor, Dan. G., 136, 155. 

Thayer, James S., 40. 

Tennessee, 43, 144, 161, 

Texas, 59, 72. 

Texas Regiment. Sec Greer's. 

Twiggs, David E., 73. 

Totten's Battery (James\ 73, 164, 
195, 211, 222 254, 26S-70, 
272-5, 282-4,285, 287, 301, 307, 
309, 310. 

Thornton's Battalion (J. C. C.), 

219. 273, 313- 314- 
Thompson, M. Jeff, 244. 
Tyler, John, 60. 

Unconditional Union partv, 53, 
57, 58. 



Union Safety Committee, 165, 

169, 190. 
Union Troops in Missouri, 195. 

Van Dorn, Earl, 73. 

Vest, George G., 50, 66-72, 92- 

94. 
Virginia, 42, 60, 143, 161. 
\Vall:er, L. Pope, 231, 233, 297, 

298. 
Walker's Regiment (Jno. D.), 

276, 282, 311, 312, 315. 
Walworth, Chancellor, 41. 
Watkins, N. W., 78, 81, 184. 
Wheeling Convention, 59, 60. 
W^eightman, Richard H., 219, 

224-6, 255, 260, 273, 282, 287- 

90, 311, 313, 314, 315. 
Wherry, Wm. M., 288. 
Wide Awakes, 33, 34, 65, 66. 
Wilson's Creek, Description, 258. 
Windsor Guards, 235. 
Wisconsin, 39. 

Witzig. Julius J., 105, 165, 169. 
Wingo's Regiment, 313-14. 
Wright, Clark, 309. 
Woodruff's Battery (Wm.E.),236, 

246, 260, 274-7, 2S2, 299, 311, 

312, 3^4- 
Woods, Henry C, 309. 
Yates, Richard, 106, 153. 
Yeatman, James E., 44. 



Messrs. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

publish, under the general title of 

The campaigns of the CIVIL WAR, 

A Series of volumes, contributed by a number of leading 
actors in and students of the great conflict of i86i-'65, with 
a view to bringing together, for the first time, a full and 
authoritative military history of the suppression of the 
Rebellion. 

The final and exhaustive form of this great narrative, in which every 
doubt shall be settled and every detail covered, may be a possibility 
only of the future. But it is a matter for surprise that twenty years 
after the beginning of the Rebellion, and when a whole generation 
has grown up needing such knowledge, there is no authority which is 
at the same time of the highest rank, intelligible and trustworthy, and 
to which a reader can turn lor any general view of the field. 

The many reports, regimental histories, memoirs, and other materi- 
als of value for special passages, require, for their intelligent reading, 
an ability to combine and proportion them which the ordinary reader 
does not possess. There have been no attempts at general histories 
which have supplied this satisfactorily to any large part of the public. 
Undoubtedly there has been no such narrative as would be especially 
welcome to men of the new generation, and would be valued by a very 
great class of readers ; — and there has seemed to be great danger that 
the time would be allowed to pass when it would be possible to give 
to such a work the vividness and accuracy that come from personal 
recollection. These facts led to the conception of the present work. 

From every department of the Government, from the officers of the 
army, and from a great number of custodians of records and special infor- 
mation everywhere, both authors and publishers have received every aid 
that could be asked in this undertaking ; and in announcing the issue of 
the work the publishers take this occasion to convey the thanks which 
the authors have had individual opportunities to express elsewhere. 



The volumes are duodecimos of about 250 pages each, 
illustrated by maps and plans prepared under the direction 
of the authors. 

The price of each volume is $1.00. 



T/ie foUoioing volumes are now ready : 

I,— The Outbreak of Rebellion. By John G. Nicolay, 
Esq., Private Secretary to President Lincoln ; late Consul- 
General to France, etc. 
A preliminary volume, describing the opening of the war, and covering Um 

period Irom the election of Lincoln to the end of the first battle of Bull Run. 



JJ. — From Fort Menry to Corinth. By the Hon. M. 
F. Force, Justice of the Superior Court, Cincinnatti; late 
Brigadier -General and Bvt. Maj. Gen'l, U.S.V. , commanding 
First Division, 17th Corps : in 1862, Lieut. Colonel of the 
20th Ohio, commanding the regiment at Shiloh ; Treasurer of 
the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. 

The narrative of events in the West from the Summer of 1S61 to May, 1862; 
covering the capture of Fts. Henry and Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, etc., etc. 

III. — The Peninsula. By Alexander S. Webb, LL.D., 
President of the College of the City of New York : Assistant 
Chief of Artillery, Army of the Potomac, iS6i-'62; Inspector 
General Fifth Army Corps; General commanding 2d Div., 
2d Corps; Major General Assigned, and Chief of Staff, Army 
of the Potomac. 

The history of McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, from his appointment to the 
end of the Seven Days' Fight. 

IV. — The Artny under Fope, By John C. Ropes, Esq., 
of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society, etc. 

From the appointment of Pope to command the Army of Virginia, to the appoint- 
ment of McCleUan to the general command in September, 1862 

V. — The Antiefam and Fredericksburg. By Francis 
WlNTHROP Palfrey, Bvt. Brigadier Gen'l, U.S.V., and form- 
erly Colonel 20th Mass. Infantry ; Lieut. Col. of the 20th 
Massachusetts at the Battle of the Antietam ; Member of 
the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society, etc. 

From the appointment of McClellan to the general command, September, 1862, to 
the end of the battle of Fredericksburg. 

Vl.—Cliancellorsville and Gettysburg. By Abner 
DouBLEDAY, Bvt. Maj. Gen'l, U.S.A., and Maj. Gen'l, 
U.S.V. ; commanding the First Corps at Gettysburg, etc. 

From the appointment of Hooker, through the campaigns of Chancellorsville and 
Gettysburg, to the retreat of Lee after the latter battle. 

VII.—TIie Army of the Cumberland. By Henry M. 
Cist, Brevet Brig. Gen'l U.S.V. ; A.A.G. on the staff of 
Major Gen'l Rosecrans, and afterwards on that of Major Gen'l 
Thomas ; Corresponding Secretary of the Society of the Army 
of the Cumberland. 

From the formation of the Army of the Cumberland to the end of the battles at 
Chattanooga, November, 1863. 



VIII.— The Mississippi, By Francis Vinton Greene, 
Lieut, of Engineers, U. S. Army; late Military Attaclie to the 
U. S. Legation in St. Petersburg; Author of "The Russian 
Army and its Campaigns in Turkey iu 1877-7S," and of 
"Army Life in Russia." 

An account of the operations— especially at Vicksburg and Port Hiidson—by 
which the Mississippi River and its shores were restored to the control of the Union. 

IX.— Atlanta. By the Hon. Jacob D. Cox, Ex-Governor of 
Ohio; late Secretary of the Interior of the United States; 
Major General U. S.V., commanding Twenty-third Corps 
durnrg the campaigns of Atlanta and the Carolinas, etc., etc. 

From Sherman's first advance into Georgia in May, 1S64, to the beginning of 
the March to the Sea. 

X.—TJie 3Iai'ch to the Sea— Franklin and Nashville, 

By Vhe Hon. Jacob D. Cox. 

From the beginning of the March to the Sea to the surrender of Johnston — 
including also the operations of Thomas in Tennessee. 

XI.— The ShenandoaJi Valley in 1S64. The Cam- 
paif/n of Sheritla/n. By George E. Pond, Esq., Asso- 
ciate Editor of the Army and Navy Journal. 

XII. — The Virginia Campaign of'GI and -65. TJie 
Army of the Potomac and the Army of the 
J antes. By Andrew A. HuMniREYS, Brigadier General 
and Jivt. Major General, U. S. A. ; late Chief of Engineers; 
Chief of Staff, Army of the Potomac, 1863-64; commanding 
Second Corps, iS64-'65, etc., etc. 

Statistical Record of the Armies of tlte United 

States. By Frederick Phisterer, late Captain U. S. A. 

This Record includes the figures of the quotas and men actually furnished by 
all States ; a list of all organizations mustered into the U. S. service; ihe strength 
of the army at various periods ; its organization in armies, corps, etc.; the divisions 
of the country into departments, etc.: chronological list of all engagements, with the 
losses in each ; tabulated statements of all losses in the war, with the causes of 
death, etc.; full lists of all general officers, and an immense amount of other valuable 
statistical matter relating to the War. 



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THE 

in the Gl 



''pHE WORK OF THE NAVY in the suppression of the Rebellion was 
■*■ certainly not less remarkable than that of the Army. The same 
forces which developed from our volunteers some of the finest bodies of 
soldiers in military history, were shown quite as wonderfully in the creation 
of a Navy, which was to cope for the first time with the problems of modern 
warfare. 

The facts that the Civil War was the first great conflict in which stccim 
was the motive power of ships ; that it was marked by the introduction of 
the ironclad ; and that it saw, for the first time, the attempt to blockade 
such a vast length of hostile coast — will make it an epoch for the techinal 
student everywhere. 

But while the Army has been fortunate in the number and character of 
those who have contributed to its written history, the Navy has been com- 
paratively without annalists. During a recent course of publications on 
the military operations of the war, the publishers were in constant receipt 
of letters pointing out this fact, and expressing the wish that a complete 
naval history of the four years might be written by competent hands. An 
effort made in this direction resulted in the cordial adoption and carrying 
out of plans by which Messrs. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS are 
enabled to announce the completion of a work of the highest authority and 
interest, giving the whole narrative of Naval Operations from 1861 to 1865. 

I. THE BLOCKADE AND THF CRUISERS.— By Pro. 

fessor J. Russell Soley, U. S. Navy. 

U. THE ATLANTIC COAST.— By Rear-Admiral Daniel 
Ammen, U. S. Navy. 

III. THE GULF AND INLAND WATERS. — By Commander 
A. T. Mahan, U. S. Navy. 
Uniform ivlth "The Campaigns of the Civil War," with maps 
and diagrams prepared binder the direction of the A.%ithors . 

Price per VoSume, Sl.OO. 

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By F. V. GREENE, 

Lieutenant of Engineers, United States Army, 

l,ate Military Attaclie to the U. S. Legation in St. Petersburg, and author oj 
" The Russian A rmy and its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-78." 



New Edition, One Volume, i2mo, . . $i.oo. 

Lieutenant Greene's opportunities for general as well as technical 
observation while with the Russian army in Turkey were such as have 
perhaps never fallen to any other student of the war. The story of this 
personal experience is embodied in this volume, which contains most 
vigorous and vivid descriptions of battle scenes, in the chapters on the 
Shipka Pass, Plevna, and in the very strong and excellent chapter on the 
winter campaign across the Balkans with Gourko. The chapters on the 
Tsar and the Russian generals, and the sections devoted to the Russian 
soldier, to St. Petersburg, and the army life of the Russian at home, are of 
absorbing interest. 



" His sketches are excellently well done, graphic, evidently not exaggerated, and 
very readable. It is a book that will be read with pleasure, and one that contains a 
great deal of information." — Hart/ord Couratit. 

"This volume is in every way an admirable picture of army life in Russia. It is 
clear, concise, discriminating, and ofien very picturesque. The author, besides pos- 
sessing an excellent style, is extremely modest, and there arc very few books of travel 
in which the first person is kept so absolutely in the background." — International 
Revietv. 

" Lieutenant Greene writes in a soldierly way, unaffected, straightforward, and 
graphic, and, though he has a keen eye for the picturesque, never sacrifices to rhetoric 
the absolute truthfulness so eminently to be desired in a narrative of this sort. — Neiu 
York World. 

"He was with the Russian army throughout tl;e campaign, enjoying perfect free- 
dom of movement, having every opportunity to visit the points of greatest activity, and 
to see the operations of greatest moment, m company with the officers who conducted 
them. His book is, therefore, for all the purposes of ordinary reader?, a complete and 
satisfactory history of the war, founded upon intimate personal knowledge of its events, 
and of its spirit. It is a work of the rarest interest and of unusual merit." — Neiv York 
Evening Post. 

" It is most fortunate for the reputation of our country and our army that we had 
such an officer to send to the far-away land of Turkey in Europe, and most creditable to 
our War Department that it sent such a man. His book deseves to be universally read, 
and we are sure that no person whom these lines may lead to purchase it will fail to 
rejoice that they have been written." — The Nation. 



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LIFE OF 

Lord Lawrence I 

BY I 

R. BOSWORTH SMITH, M.A., ^ 

Late fellow of trinity college; assistant master at harrow 

SCHOOL. 



With 3Iaps and Portfaits, 2 vols., 8vo, $5.00. 

"As a biography, the work is an inthralling one, rich in 
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and beneficent career that bring into bold relief his strongly- 
marked and almost colossal individuality, and rich also in in- 
stances of his courage, his fortitude, his perseverance, his self- 
control, his magnanimity, and in the details of the splendid 
results of his masterful and masterly policy. . . . We know 
of no work on India to which the reader can refer with so great 
certainty for full and dispassionate information relative to the 
government of the country, the characteristics of its people, and 
the fateful events of the forty eventful years of Lord Lawrence's 
Indian career." — Harper's Magazine. 

"John Lawrence, the name by which the late Viceroy of India 
will always be best known, has been fortunate in his biographer, 
Mr. Bosworth Smith, who is an accomplished writer and a faith- 
ful, unflinching admirer of his hero. He has produced an enter- 
taining as well as a valuable book ; the general reader will 
certainly find it attractive ; the student of recent history will 
discover in its pages matters of deep interest to him." — London 
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